Last week I attended the annual San Antonio Trauma Symposium presented by the National Trauma Institute (NTI). The NTI is a consortium of both civilian and military facilities. The San Antonio symposium is the largest civilian/military symposium of its kind in the nation. Most of the attendees were military personnel with only a smattering of civilians like myself.
Many of the military personnel at the symposium have served in Iraq during this war, some of them very recently. The experience of sitting next to these soldiers during the lectures was poignant. To hear their stories and see their pictures was distressing.
I am against the conflict in Iraq, that is no secret. But, I confess, I have cavalierly spoken against the war and the enlisted men and women. It is one thing to disagree with the war, it is quite another to look down at those serving in the war. One soldier said (paraphrased) to us during a presentation, "We don't like war. We're only doing our jobs the same way that you're doing yours." Wow. I suppose I looked at soldiers as puppets for this administration, or people who had been duped by words like "freedom", "terrorism", and "democracy". That is not the case, I found at first-hand.
After sitting through slideshows of battlefield trauma victims, blast injuries, living conditions of the soldiers, and pictures of Afghani and Iraqi citizens, I gained a new perspective. I still disagree with the war, but I respect very much the men and women in the military who are serving in the war. It is true, their sacrifices are significant and should not be underestimated.
