Joe Diaz: We need to get away from fighting others' wars
I am an American Veteran
I proudly served my country
I live the values I learned in the military
I continue to serve my community, my country and my fellow veterans
I maintain my physical and mental discipline
I continue to lead and improve
I make a difference
I honor and remember my fallen comrades.
The above is the Veteran’s Creed. Something I share with many, not all, fellow veterans. And like many veterans our two saddest days are Memorial Day and remembering the day a buddy or family member was killed or died later. Many of us are angry at the loss of the 13 in August 2021 and the way we pulled out of a 20-year civil war we should never have been in.
Like many vets living today, I was born after World War II when the mission was clear. During my life, almost every war we have been involved in has been someone else’s civil war or neighbor’s border war. From Korea to Vietnam to Somalia to Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria and many others where we were sent either willingly or drafted. American military fought and died while not all of military age in those countries were fighting for the freedom our brothers and sisters were providing.
At one point, our country had our military involved in over 50 wars and conflicts around the world as military advisors or part of the military group. I know. I was one in some of those countries.
With only two exceptions when we were attacked and threaten by either the Al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein did we actually and directly fight for American freedom. But after “payback” our so-called leaders got us involved in their civil wars and our death toll rose to 102,754 and climbing. Add the hundreds of thousands of the wounded and missing in action and we paid a very high price for “freedom.”
It wasn’t the North Korean soldier, the Viet Cong, the Taliban, or any of the others that fought us that was threating American freedom. It always was the leaders of the then Soviet Union — now Russia. They, like us, were pawns in a power struggle for world domination.
Like many of my fellow vets I saw the waste of billions of dollars that was used in these many wars. Angry to know of the millions that went to corrupt leaders and generals in those countries where we lost buddies and family members. We didn’t forget the billions in war equipment left behind because our so-called leaders decided to quit like Vietnam and Afghanistan.
That is why the vets like me watch with keen interest the wars in Ukraine and Israel.
Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have cared what happened in Ukraine. They were just as bad and corrupt as Russia. If not worse. With the new president and the removal of corrupt officials and generals we can support their fight for freedom. As long as there is a total commitment to fight off the sponsor of most of our country’s war dead and wounded.
I worked two projects in Israel in the 1990s. I got to see things differently than tourists. I have seen both the good and bad of the way things are done in Israel and also the good and bad of the Palestinians. If I mentioned all the faults and good of each side I could fill pages in this newspaper.
But no matter what Israel did to both the Palestinians and to their own Arab-Israeli citizens, no one deserved the brutal attacks on innocents on both sides. I can only speak for those who think like I do that both Israel and Palestine deserve to be free and safe countries with firm borders.
When those two countries exist we can support a multi-national peacekeeping force (MFO) like we have at the borders of Israel and Egypt. Many of our reservists and Army vets have served in the MFO and it has worked without loss of American lives.
ALL American military sign a contract and an oath to protect and defend our country. They did — and do — proudly without hesitation. The vets who think as I do believe although we served in all these countries and wars, the reason we did was to protect OUR country from the puppet master (Russia) who was funding all those wars.
We just wish that to fight in someone else’s civil war that all military age men and women of that country are “in it to win it.”
As a veteran, I would serve again. But only in defense of our country.
— Carleton resident Joe Diaz retired as a command master chief in 2007 after 40 years with the U.S. Navy. He served in six wars and conflicts.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Joe Diaz: We need to get away from fighting others' wars
