The Peace Contingent Belongs

From Memorial Day antiwar protests by Eric Ruder:

"What makes this Memorial Day different from the previous ones is that we finally have the official statistics showing that the number of suicides among veterans is astonishing--now at 1,000 attempts a month," said Ray in an interview.

"And the number of successful suicides among Iraq and Afghan veterans is equaling the number of deaths in combat. We are not talking about the elephant standing in the middle of the room. What we are dealing with is the feelings of a person after they've realized they've taken the life of another human being and they've lost the life of their best buddy in a war that never should have been fought."

In past years, support took the form of clapping and thumbs up, but this year there was chanting and joining the contingent. This has also established a precedent that the peace contingent belongs in the Memorial Day parade and that unbridled displays of militarism are not representative of how a majority of Americans feel about the war and supporting the troops.

Read the rest here.