Why the hell did it have to happen, except for the ego of the nation’s president? The National Guardsman could have been safely home in West Virginia, there is no crisis in Washington DC exception the delusions of one man who sits the nation’s highest office. Of course, similar things could have been said about other war mongering presidents, such as Lyndon Johnson or George W. Bush. Maybe not delusions in the strictest sense, but certainly motivated reason.
War messes with people’s minds, especially those who are sent overseas to fight and kill. Murdering your fellow citizen, even for what is called a just cause, is anti-human, it messes with your brain, accepting terrible things are normal and neccessary. We can only think that Afghan Veteran who worked with the US in fighting the Taliban, not only was a person of great valour but had his sense of good and evil warped the evil of war. Who knows what he was thinking, but he had to be horrified as many Americans seeing the National Guard marching on our streets, as seeing the Taliban march on the streets of Afghanistan. A confused hero brought back in flashbacks to a troubled land, as our own country is very troubled by our current nation’s leaders.
Let us not forget how unnecessary the war on Afghanistan really was – or at least the extent we fought it for over two decades – at the cost of thousands of American lives. Maybe we needed to shutdown and disrupt or at least reduce the threat of Al Queada attacks, as September 11th was horrific, but we took many more lives then were necessary, and fought far more of an extensive war when we should have been mission-driven, and in and out quickly without the war lingering on for decades. The National Guardsman who were likely fatally injured in DC, weren’t even born when the War in Afghanistan started, they would have had no idea that a quarter century later they would end up as victims, in the most horrible string of events.
The National Guard primarily provides assistance in times of natural disaster, along with other disasters such as the pandemic or on the off-chance America was attacked or significant civil disorder exists on our streets. They aren’t local police forces, though previous presidents have sent them overseas to support combat troops, as they became stretched thin with the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. But with those wars now in our nation’s past, who would have thought some young and women, stepping up to serve their communities would land up in the path of a bullet in Washington DC from a deranged Afghanistan Veteran?
There aren’t a lot of good choices for people who want to live in rural or small town communites. Even with a trade or an advanced degree, people don’t have a lot of money in much of Appalachia to hire you. At this writing, we don’t know where the young man or women hailed from, but if it’s like most of West Virginia, it’s likely a poor and remote hollar, a rag-tag farm or homestead, or a dialopated old coal-mining village. All with few job prospects, and even fewer jobs that pay a wage able to produce anything beyond poverty living. The National Guard seemed like a good way to make some money, support your community. Appalachia often suffers terrible tragies from floods and other disasters, and it’s National Guard who steps in to help those in dire need. Maybe the Guardsman saw hope in Trump’s message of rural pride, a change and hope of breaking the cycles of rural poverty, when all seemed so hopeless. But because of choice of foolish man in White House, it all had to play out very differently.
I often romanticize rural life, the simple, natural life of farmer and homesteaders. Or the great beauty that places like West Virginia really are. It’s an amazing place if you love outdoor activities. But that ignores how tough life really in Appalachia or having a life closely tied to the land more generally – where it’s mining coal, cutting timber, or raise beef cattle. But there are only a handful of jobs in those industries, which themselves are deeply competitive with poor wages, and for most people they don’t even have an opportunity to sustain themselves doing that. There are auxiliary jobs that support a community, but those jobs such as retail clerks or nursing, aren’t exactly well paid or plentiful either. It’s just tough all around.
And the deaths in such a rural community just hit harder, as small towns there are fewer people, and connections are much stronger, as you are more likely to run into a person and their family members. It’s just tragic for all involved, except maybe for the President, who got us into this mess and is the most responsible person for the shooting and the pain that will be inflicted on these close-nit small towns.
