Carl Nolte's profile of J. Michael
Myatt (Native Son, November 11, 2017), the former CEO of Marines Memorial,
who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and rose to become a major
general during the Gulf War, needs more context, especially in San
Francisco, which is, as Nolte observes, “... a city with a
reputation as a hotbed of anti-military sentiment.”
One may be justly proud of serving
one's country, but America would have been better served if we had
never gone to war in Vietnam. America was torn apart by the Vietnam
war and we haven't recovered yet. I don't see any recognition of
that in Myatt's quoted recollections or any acknowledgment that our
government lied to us. No American troops should ever have been sent
to Vietnam. Over 58,000 American military and as many as 2 million
Vietnamese civilians died. I would be interested to hear if General
Myatt thinks it was the right decision to go to war in Vietnam.
In San Francisco, we have a tradition
that started with the Vietnam war; resistance to the draft and
opposition to war. The Summer of Love was about peace; make love not
war. San Francisco is the birthplace of the United Nations, an
organization dedicated to international cooperation and the avoidance
of war. As a long-time resident of San Francisco these are the
traditions I'm proud to be associated with, not the glorification of
war.
The
first Gulf War was another unnecessary war based on lies and the
cynical manipulation of American public opinion by the administration
of George Bush, Sr. It would have been nice to hear some reference
to this by General Myatt. The Department of Defense reports that US
forces suffered 148 battle-related deaths (35 to friendly fire).
According to the Project on Defense Alternatives study, between
20,000 and 26,000 Iraqi military personnel were killed in the
conflict while 75,000 others were wounded. This grossly one-sided
conflict between the the world's military superpower and a mostly
conscripted and ill-equipped army of Iraqis, (who had been our allies
when it suited us),does our country no credit. We left Saddam
Hussein in power. Wasn't he a tyrant then?
Nolte “says Myatt has “important
ties to senior members of the Trump Administration as if it's
something to his credit. Trump represents all that we in San
Francsico and California reject; xenophobia, racism, anti-immigrant
regulations and easy, jingoistic rhetoric over thoughtful policy.
Everyone in our state government and our city government soundly
rejects Trump's policies. If Carl Nolte thinks“important ties to
the Trump Administration” are something to boast about. he's not
only in the wrong city, he's in the wrong state.
In 2014, among all U.S. adult deaths
from suicide, 18% (7,403) were identified as Veterans of U.S.
military service, according to the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. The
U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs estimates that PTSD
afflicts: Almost 31 percent
of Vietnam veterans.
As many as 10 percent of
Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans.
11 percent of veterans of
the war in Afghanistan. Of the 1.7 million veterans who served in
Iraq and Afghanistan, 300,000 (20
percent) suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or major
depression (RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research, 2008)
General Myatt mission to honor our
veterans rings hollow when so many of our veterans are not getting
the services and treatment they need. It looks very pleasant there in
the Marines Memorial Club's Library but just down the street in the
Tenderloin homeless veterans are injecting drugs. The rush to war in
Afghanistan and Iraq has cost us dearly and we are less, not more,
secure. It would be better not to send our young man and women into
harm's way in the first place, without a compelling reason.
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