This article, by Leslie Cebula, was posted to WTAP.COM, August 3, 2008
The Pentagon says there's been progress in Iraq citing the number of U.S. deaths has dropped and the amount of violence over the past three months has also declined.
Sunday in Marietta, local and national representatives of the Vietnam and Iraq Veterans Against the War joined for a benefit and discussion about the situation.
Marty Webster grew up in a Conservative family in the fifties.
"I enlisted in the Navy. I wanted to go to Southeast Asia and beat up commies," said Webster, a National Coordinator of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
When he was eighteen years old, he served as a Combat Medic with a Naval Surgical Activity.
In triage he said he faced the judgment call of who had to be treated first.
"Sometimes some people that we had decided maybe didn't need quite as quick of service passed away," he said.
He said his experience in Vietnam led him to join Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"We support the battle weary and the broken hearted and those coming home with their hearts in their hands and not knowing which way to turn.
Sunday, the group along with Iraq Veterans Against the War and members of the Mid-Ohio Valley Peace Initiative discussed what supporting our troops means to them.
"It's a shame how this has affected our young people in Iraq right now. It's the same thing all over again," Webster said.
There are many others who walked away from Vietnam with a different mindset.
"I think we fought for our freedom to do as we please and these people need their choice of freedom," said Doryl Weinstock a Vietnam veteran and member of VFW Post 5108.
Weinstock hauled supplies and troops with the U.S. Army's Fourth Division.
He served from 1965 to 1967.
"My country needed me, I served, and I would do it again and I'm proud I did it," Weinstock said.
Veterans also came to a benefit performance by Watermelon Slim and the Workers in Parkersburg Sunday evening.
The group donated the proceeds to Iraq Veterans Against the War.