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By Matthew McLaughlin

It’s been 22 years since I enlisted in the Army and served in the Iraq War. Every Veterans Day becomes more significant to me. This year is made more significant by the passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney, a person who had a profoundly negative impact on my life.

I do not celebrate anyone’s death. It brings me no joy or closure that he passed.  My condolences to his family and friends who knew him and cared about him as a human being. My tears, however, are reserved for the millions of human beings who lost their lives or suffered immensely due to Dick Cheney’s deliberate, unrepentant actions.

Exactly 4,431 American servicemembers died in Iraq. An additional 318 servicemembers from coalition nations died fighting for us. Surviving veterans carry injuries and the hidden traumas of war. Over 1,500 contractors died, 63 associated with Haliburton, the corporation Dick Cheney ran before becoming Vice President.

The number of Iraqis killed is literally incalculable. Estimates are anywhere between 110,000 to one million people. This wide gap is an indication of the callousness with which Iraqi lives were regarded.

Behind every one of these victims of war are mothers and fathers who lost their children needlessly. Children without parents. Brothers, sisters, friends, partners, exes, neighbors, coworkers and familiar faces. All of these lives ended or irreparably damaged for a lie.

On November 20, Dick Cheney will be laid to rest with full honors befitting his status. American soldiers will give him a 19 gun salute and his family will be given a folded American flag on behalf of a grateful nation. Policy makers and academics will assess his role in history with cold indifference. They will compare the death toll in Iraq to the grand scheme of history and not think of each statistic as a human being who did not have to die.

History will remember Dick Cheney. His name must be synonymous with the unnecessary loss of American servicemembers and the nameless Iraqis whose deaths could not even be bothered to be calculated. This has to be said now, not after a respectful period, because in a few weeks everyone but the people who directly suffered will go back to forgetting. These victims are the lasting legacy of Dick Cheney. It is up to us to decide whether their legacy is a painful lesson learned or if we will continue to make the same mistakes.

I am a proud Iraq War veteran. I honor anyone who is willing to serve this country, regardless of when and where they served. If I could go back in time I would still enlist, because it is part of who I am. Yet I would trade every medal, every “thank you for your service” every free beer, all of my education benefits and every Veterans Day ceremony if it meant stopping our elected leaders from wasting another life on an unjust war.

Matthew McLaughlin is an Iraq War veteran and City Councilor in Somerville