MARGARET ANDERSON - CASUALTY OF WAR

Margaret Anderson was an American casualty of the war in Iraq, a war she never signed up to fight. You won't find her listed among the war dead statistics kept by the Pentagon, but she was a war casualty nonetheless, and it behooves us all to remember her sacrifice and why she died.

Margaret was a park ranger assigned to the Mount Rainier National Park in the state of Washington. Her job included standard park ranger duties as well as law enforcement throughout the national park. She was armed. She recognized the dangers associated with her position, and by all accounts, she was well-liked and carried out her duties in a competent and professional manner.

On New Year's Day, the war that started over five thousand miles from Margaret Anderson's home came to America's shore, to the national park where Margaret worked, to the road where Margaret had set up a roadblock, to the vehicle where Margaret breathed her final breaths, and it turned her into a statistic - another casualty of war. The war came to Margaret in the form of a twenty-four year old man, Benjamin Colton Barnes an Iraqi war veteran who still carried the war with him. Barnes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal ideations and probably fear, stemming from having shot four people near Seattle earlier that day. Barnes knew the police were searching for him and Mount Rainier National Park was the place he chose to attempt to avoid being captured. That is where Barnes encountered resistance (a roadblock) set up by a force he perceived as an enemy (Ranger Margaret Anderson) and he responded to that perceived enemy as soldiers of war are trained to do, by using deadly force.

I am not suggesting that Barnes' actions were justified in any sense of that word. I am not suggesting that Margaret Anderson was anything but an honorable woman performing her civic and patriotic duty. What I am suggesting is that Benjamin Colton Barnes never left the Iraq war in Iraq. He brought it home with him, continued fighting it within himself and never managed to bring it under control. As a result, Margaret Anderson became another casualty.

Our politicians and military leaders may choose to overlook or downplay the scars left on combat veterans by post-traumatic stress disorder, but until proper attention is given to its prevalence among our soldiers returning from war, casualties like Margaret Anderson will continue to occur.