In “Born on the Fourth of July,” Ron Kovic tells of attending a peace rally in a wheelchair after being paralyzed in Vietnam when some guy took advantage of Kovic’s helplessness and beat him up.

Kovic and other vets remind me of Christ. We honor them as saviors as they go to war, and, if they survive, we crucify them.

Often we hide our crucifixions. After the Iraq war broke out, I prayed aloud in St. Benedict’s for justice for our returning vets. A fellow churchgoer complained I was supporting more government spending. Consider that for a moment. Spending trillions on war is just dandy, but spending billions on the vets maimed emotionally and physically is being a “liberal.”

I’ve had it with the spin that opposing the war is dishonoring the troops. As Lt. Col. Rob Waldman wrote in the Veterans Day Daily News, “As a former fighter pilot and veteran with 65 combat missions in Iraq and Serbia, believe me when I say there is no greater advocate for peace than a soldier.” The chicken colonel has a lot more guts than the chicken hawks who disguise their support for war by hiding behind those who risk their lives to carry out the orders of the politicians even when they believe the politicians are wrong. As one critic wrote in response to my last blog, “Shame on you.”

I began Veterans Day by watching an interview with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of the Harvard Medical School. She told Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now” some 2266 veterans die each year for lack of medical care, uninsured people suffer a 40% higher chance of dying than the insured, five of eight bankruptcies in the US result from medical bills, one in four homeless Americans are veterans, one in three women in the military are sexually assaulted, and one in five veterans suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. Maybe you war advocates can explain to me how that’s supporting our troops.

On the same program, Goodman talked to a couple whose son killed himself in Iraq five months ago after serving six years in the military. The parents got no letter of condolence from the president, but continue to get letters from the Veterans Administration asking them to help the VA with its paperwork. Goodman quoted former (and I hope future) Anchorage guy Dahr Jamail, who reports ten—if I recollect properly--active military men and women kill themselves each year at Fort Hood in Texas.

Maybe it’s time to start supporting the troops and not the politicians who send them off to death and mutilation. You can show your support by listening to Dahr Monday night, Nov. 16 at room 118 in the Social Sciences Building at UAA. He supported the troops by writing a book about active military personnel’s resistance to the wars.

It’s time to stand up to the phonies, look them right in the eye and tell opposing frivolous wars is supporting the troops.