The Forever War

The Forever War, you know, the one we are currently in, began around Vietnam in the late 60s, a long running body of work consisting of firefights, skirmishes and protracted campaigns yielding not one victory, save for Grenada, as all the rest either consists of stalemates or defeats depending on the specific action in question as we move ever further into 2019. In connecting this set of fubars to Nam, another "skirmish" based on a lie and ending in defeat, one readily learns the tragic fact these brave men and women died not for freedom but for a misbegotten foreign policy driven by profit for the companies supplying the weapons for a war that never ends.

Today, Marseilles retains one modest claim to fame. It’s the site of the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial, dedicated in June 2004 and situated on an open plot of ground between the river and the old Nabisco plant. The memorial, created and supported by a conglomeration of civic-minded Illinois bikers, many of them Vietnam veterans, is the only one in the nation that commemorates those who have died during the course of the various campaigns, skirmishes, protracted wars, and nasty mishaps that have involved U.S. forces in various quarters of the Greater Middle East over the past several decades.

Those panels now contain more than 8,000 names. Each June, in conjunction with the annual “Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run,” which ends at the memorial, more are added. Along with flags and plaques, there is also text affirming that all those commemorated there are heroes who died for freedom and will never be forgotten.

On that point, allow me to register my own quibble. Although my son’s name is halfway down near the left margin of Panel 5B, I find myself uneasy with any reference to American soldiers having died for freedom in the Greater Middle East. Our pronounced penchant for using that term in connection with virtually any American military action strikes me as a dodge. It serves as an excuse for not thinking too deeply about the commitments, policies, and decisions that led to all those names being etched in stone, with more to come next month and probably for many years thereafter.