What is it all for?

War. If hell is real, war is part of it. I blog today with a heavy heart. My heart is heavy because the news shows such great distress and peril in the regions of the world that have held our gaze for over two decades. Afghanistan. Twenty years of blood, sweat, tears and death. Death of those close to us. Death to a brother a sister, mom or dad, cousin, uncle, aunt and the list goes on. Today instead of passing judgement, which by the way, is easy in hindsight, simply lay down your own preconceptions and realize the hurt that is going on. What hurt am I talking about? Well for starters, those being overrun by the Taliban right now. The innocent civilians being laid to waste in their path. Next for the thousands of troops who have lost important moments in their life doing what we asked them to do. Trust me, they are struggling. I know how I felt after we left Iraq. I pondered all the time about why were we even there? What difference did it make? Why did we have to lose people if it was all for nothing? Today, I ask myself this question, why are we still losing them to suicide all these years later. We the people have a job to do right now. We must set a course of action for our Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Sailors that includes trauma informed care at the highest. They are hurting and wondering why right now. Will you join me in being ready to listen? Will you have the patience and love to not have the answers? They will be pissed. They have that right. They will cry, let them, it heals. The Soldier doesn’t make the decision to go to war or when they are to leave it and war rarely if ever leaves the Soldier.-Shawn Banzhaf