It has been almost a month since Veterans Day. And the David Petraeus scandal has finally fizzled out. So it seems we can go back to not talking about the fact that there is a war in Afghanistan.
On Monday, the news that there is still a war raging came back to the Capital Region from a military chaplain.
A 26-year-old Marine and Mechanicville native was killed in a firefight that ensued after a suicide bomber tried to drive onto base. Anthony Denier had been a Marine for only 18 months.
No matter what anyone's opinion of the war is, whether for or against it, we should at least be able to read in the paper or hear on the news what is going on in Afghanistan. There are approximately 67,000 troops still fighting, on patrol, guarding bases — and also going on humanitarian missions.
Those troops are in harm's way every day, not just when the media report it. If the media do report it, it's almost always because something bad has happened.
To put that number in perspective, the University at Albany has about 17,500 students. So if you uprooted almost four times the number of students at UAlbany and dropped them off in Afghanistan, you would match the current number of deployed troops. And their average age would be pretty close as well. That doesn't count the sailors and airmen deployed nearby in support of those troops on the ground.
Early on in the war, every day you could read what was happening on the front page of just about any newspaper. Now the media rarely even mention the war. Yet, there are still a lot of young men and women fighting a war that will go on for at least two more years. It's already set in stone that we can't draw down our troops until 2014, the year everything is supposed to magically fall into place so Afghanistan will be stable.
I'm not sure if the public lost interest in the war or the media got tired of reporting on it. Either way, the public should at least have the opportunity to know what our military is doing.
The Vietnam War was different, because there was a draft and those who didn't want to fight in a war they were against made their opinions known. They protested the war, and people paid attention to the news coverage.
This is our first entirely volunteer military since the Revolutionary War. Perhaps that has something to do with the lack of interest; people have grown content knowing that for whatever reason, a small percentage of Americans have the courage to fight for our country.
If no one volunteered, the government would reinstate the draft, end the war or stretch the few troops we do have even thinner.
We should honor them by mentioning what they do and what they have sacrificed, so they aren't just another statistic.
Billy DeLap is a student at the University at Albany and a veteran of the U.S. Navy.
