My Soul to Keep, in class speaker

 The experience of war is something that most people can never fully understand. During the Vietnam war, several young boys were fed glamorized tales of what the military would hold, and so they enlisted and so many lives were forever changed. Bob Means is a Marine veteran who enlisted during the Vietnam war when he was 17. He wasn't at first deployed to the active war zone, but once he turned 18 he insisted on being sent out. Quickly, his idea of what war was, the chivalry and glory, changed. 

    During one excursion, he was ordered to fire at anything that moved, and thus, when the Vietnamese rice farms were returning to their homes, shots were fired. 22 civilians were killed. Bob Means life was changed. Returning back to normal life, he was never the same. This is the case for many veterans, and as Bob said, 44 veterans kill themselves every day. I have heard from several veterans I know personally and whom I read the stories of say that they were fed a false idea of what the military was before enlisting. This seems so messed up to me. The act of war seems so messed up to me.

    Some people are forced to enter the military due to financial issues, home problems, or pressure from society. The military can have benefits for people once their terms are over, but the problems it causes is exponential. The rate of diagnosed PTSD of soldiers in the US military is 11-22% in a given year, and the rate of unwanted sexual experiences in a given year is 24% in the US military. These stats on top of wounds and disabilities that are received from war. All of these permanently change the trajectory of a persons life, and even if they aren't pushed to suicide like so many are, they are still forced to live with the disabilities and trauma they experienced from enlisting. 

    I think war is wrong, have a military is important for protection, but I think it is wrong that the US government puts so much money into the military every year, billions of dollars are funneled in. This money could be going to solving so many other problems, like healthcare, better education, and the housing issues that are running rampant across the US. Instead of causing more pain and death and suffering by encouraging violence and war, this money should be going to stopping the suffering, making peoples lives better, not worse. 

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