Chaplain Kathie: Smarter heads than mine

SMARTER HEADS THAN MINE

By Chaplain Kathie STAFF WRITER

This is to clear up any misunderstanding on what I post and why I post. I stay out of things I know little about, like the reasons we go to war. Reading history going back to the Trojan War, there is always some trumped up reason one “kingdom” will wage war on another. There has always been fingers pointed and claims made about the worthiness of sending men (lately women too) to fight and die. I leave the debates to smarter heads than mine and stay out of it. I have opinions but they are not carved in stone and I am always willing to listen to both sides but honestly I think both sides are wrong when they toss into the debate everything including the kitchen sink. There is nothing wrong with honest debate about something as important as war but we tend to let those debates turn into attacks against anyone with a different opinion on the subject at hand as well as ones that have nothing to do with the war debate. It turns into a all or nothing fight.

My cause is and always will be the men and women we send to do the fighting. There was a time when I felt as if I had something to prove when I posted on my blog, Screaming in an Empty Room but that ended when I received a heart breaking email from a soldier who told me how much it hurt him to read my political views when he was looking for assurance that he could heal. At the time there were over 10,000 posts with a lot of research involved, so deleting the blog was not an option any more than it would have been possible to remove all the political posts I did. My pride was not worth hurting the men and women I dedicated all these years to especially considering that politicians on both sides have let them down throughout the history of this nation. When I started Wounded Times Blog about three years ago, the only political posts were about politicians either fighting for veterans or voting against them. When a veteran comes to me for help I have no clue if they are Democrat, Republican or Independent, which by the way is my political affiliation, and frankly I don’t care because they are a veteran in need of help as a person, so I keep my political views where I feel they belong, to myself.

What brought this need to post was a post I did the other day on the “birther” who refused to deploy because he didn’t believe Obama was the rightful Commander-in-Chief, which caused a lot of readers to attack me personally even though the only thing I posted against the “birther” movement is that I believe they are wrong and according to most of the reporters, that is the way they are viewed by the majority of the country. I was called all kinds of names which didn’t really bother me as much as the fact they were attacking me for political views I never once shared including calling me a “zionist” which really stuck me that all arguments apparently have to include all their opinions no matter if they apply or not. I think they are wrong on this and they think I’m wrong, which is perfectly fine but the original intent of the post was lost in a winner take all gang up on.

So here’s what I think politically so that there is no more confusion when I post something else that some here will not agree with.

There is usually a motive behind politicians sending men and women into combat, so I don’t trust any of them when it comes to something as serious as war. I’ve heard too many debates on CSPAN and read through too many text books on war to know that few of them really consider options as much as they consider their political careers. This was evident after 9-11 when politician after politician rushed into the decision to go to war instead of rushing to figure out what the hell happened, how all the defenses this nation had all failed at the very time we needed them all to work.

WIth Iraq came Ron Paul telling the truth when most of the other politicians were too worried about their careers to care about soldiers. Some other quotes from Ron Paul I agree with.

“Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.”

“Everyone assumes America must play the leading role in crafting some settlement or compromise between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But Jefferson, Madison, and Washington explicitly warned against involving ourselves in foreign conflicts.”

Read more: Ron Paul

There are a lot of things I agree with Ron Paul on but somehow the post I did turned into something totally different because I believe Obama was born in Hawaii, which was what the point of the linked news report was all about. Somehow hating him turned into an all consuming attack against someone who did not agree with them.

Never, ever think of sending any man or woman to fight a war without the following.

No other way out to provide for the safety of the people of this nation.
Plans to do it as fast as possible with overwhelming force and power and when those plans do not do as promised, have other plans don’t stay the course.
Never ever begin to plan on how much money will be needed until you have factored in and funded taking care of the wounded.
Start to plan to hire and train new VA employees as soon as the troops are sent and then if it turns out to be over faster with less casualties, then use what you need to take care of all the veterans properly and lay off those not needed. Use them to replace older workers retiring so there is no down time on claims to be processed.
Stop the defense contractors from taking over everything because as Iraq has shown, they do a lousy job and cost more money when it comes to supplying the food, services along with installing showers.
Make sure congress has true oversight on all the money contractors bill so that they do not get more contracts when they have not delivered on the ones they were already given.
Last but not least, make sure the American people are subjected to all the reports on the wars they approved of including the death counts, the counts on how many lost limbs and the rest of the conditions they go through for their sake. Stop protecting them from the truth so they know what they are asking these men and women to go through instead of asking them to take tax cuts and go shopping.

The men and women who risk their lives for this country serve next to people with a different political view yet they would still lay down their lives for each other. The rest of us have not learned that lesson at all and turn everything into reasons to fight each other. This is one of the biggest reasons why I would rather focus on them instead of things smarter heads than mine have not figured out to do yet.