My brain must have been in idle when I wrote the preceding piece on Memorial Day. As Mitch Dutton and a couple of other folks have reminded me, Memorial Day is all about honoring war dead. It's not supposed to be about the wounded and maimed. As all my correspondent-correcters noted, we have Veterans Day to honor those who have served and survived.
What I was trying to say, and what I think is valid, is that when we talk about the human cost of war, we tend to overlook those who will carry the scars of combat, emotionally if not physically, for the rest of their lives. I phrased it poorly but that's what's on my mind.