I've been reading our weekly free Newsweek and I have been absolutely sucked into the April 2nd Special Issue "Voices of the Fallen." Most of the issue is letters from American soldiers who have died in Iraq. And there are dozens of these letters. You read over and over again these soldiers making plans for when they return home only to read at the end of the letter how they were killed by a roadside bomb, or "small arms fire" or some accident. It is so sad that I have had to stop many times.
Reading these letters, you get an idea of how separated we non-soldier Americans are from the fighting. We are so numb that these dead men and women are usually nothing more than an increasing number on the evening news. For the lucky ones of us, we don't know anyone who has been wounded, let alone killed in Iraq. We have not been asked to sacrifice ANYTHING, while our fellow citizens are giving the ultimate sacrifice in the belief that they are protecting us. I like to think that I am serving my country- and the greater world- here but these men and women, were asked by a country they loved and trusted to fight for it and put themselves in the line of fire. They did so willingly and bravely. Many have died in order to fulfill that request.
Yet here we are, whether in America or abroad, without having to sacrifice a thing. Sure, prices have raised but what else have we given up? I remember when I was a kid, seeing the ration coupons my grandparents kept from WWII and hearing the stories of living under rations. I was amazed at the idea of "Victory Gardens," scrap metal drives, and the idea that it could actually be hard to buy flour. To say it was hard is an understatement, but everyone was in it together. Our country was at war for something we believed in, and everyone pitched in and sacrificed. Where are our Victory Gardens today? Where are our ration coupons?
Our country is trying to wage a war on the cheap. We cheer on our troops, we stick magnets on our cars, we wave our flags, but what are we sacrificing? Politicians are anxious to send more young men and women to fight a war without fronts, yet how many of them have children or grandchildren who are there? How many of them have seen war? How many know what a roadside bomb does to a vehicle or what a bullet does to a face? It may seem that many Republicans sacrificed their offices for their support of the war, but I tend to see that as justice.
I'm not sure exactly what I want to say here. Maybe I am just trying to wrestle with emotions that can't be written down. I feel ashamed. I feel sad. I feel afraid. I feel very unAmerican. Here I am living a challenging, yet safe life while people my age and younger are dying because they think they are protecting us. And I am doing nothing to help them. Heck, this year I didn't even have any taxes. I am not joining the military to cover their back, I am not rationing my food, I am not saying prayers every night for them and I am not working to make better armor or vehicles.
All this makes me angry because NO ONE IS ASKING ME to do anything. The government was so anxious to go to war, but so unwilling to do the brave thing and make this war real. No one wanted to risk their jobs and say, "hey we are doing this because we think it is right. It is so important that we win and because of that, things are going to hurt. We need everyone to sacrifice." I can think of two reasons why no one said this. Maybe our leaders didn't have an ounce of the courage our soldiers do and were too afraid of losing their jobs. They thought that this war was important but didn't want to stick their necks out. If this is true, then I am disgusted. The other reason, if it is true, makes me furious: the politicians sent our brothers and sisters to fight and die for a reason that wasn't worth the sacrifice. Maybe no one asked us to sacrifice because the war isn't worth it. We know now that the claims of WMD were false, that Saddam didn't have links to terrorists and that he didn't pose a threat to us or anyone else, but if the president ordered this war without ordering us to sacrifice, maybe he knew this truth then...
In any case, I know this isn't much of a sacrifice, indeed it isn't a sacrifice at all, but I just wanted to say to all of the troops in harm's way and all their families and friends back in states: "Thank you." Thank you for answering the call when our country called. We will find some way to match your unmatchable sacrifice.
3 comments:
In my opinion, the best "thank you" we can offer is getting them out of this pointless, direction-less, ill conceived war. I appreciate that they answered the call to serve, but for all their sacrifice, I don't feel any safer. My "thank you" will be doing my best (as I always have) to elect people who understand the cost of war, and therefore use intelligent, compassionate discretion when calling American youth to serve.
I think we must do more than simply vote. Voting is the bare-minimum we must do in a democracy. We must pressure the politicians we have to win this war. I hate the fact they are over there as much as anyone. But we cannot simply get out. We must win this war and then punish those who got us in there in the first place and promise ourselves to never, NEVER, let our politicians do this again. The ramifications of failure are too great in this fight. If Iraq falls we will not only have a more dangerous "war on terrorism" we will have a world war III, mark my words. If Iraq falls, Iran gets stronger. If Iran gets stronger, it goes after Israel and all progressive Arab states. A fight in this region means we all lose. Already Jordan and Syria are being over run with refugees. The whole region will go to Hell if Iraq fails. It was a huge ass mistake to go to war, but it was a mistake we all made by not stopping the president. We live in a democracy and we should have stopped him. We didn't, and now we must pay the price. We must sacrifice. We must win this war.
What is the definition of winning this war? A democratic Iraq?...You can't give people a democracy. They have to go for it themselves. It will never work until a country chooses it and nurtures it and maybe some peoples won't be able to handle it. Is the definition of winning to stop the insurgency? We don't even understand the insurgency, the history of it, the depths of it, so how can we stop it? As soon as we go, it will start again. Some places are not ready for democracy.
I agree with you that loosing would be catastrophic...But it is not a war of bullets that will win. It is a war of well-organized, education-based, carefully-funded and carefully-managed aid that will win...You cannot stop a terrorist by killing him. Two will spring in his place. You stop a terrorist by giving him a profitable job, which allows him to buy food for his children, clothes for his wife. You set up Muslim-oriented factories and art cooperatives to help the terrorist's wife use her skills to supplement their income. You build a hospital for him to go when he's sick. You build a school for his children to attend. You give housing loans so he can put a roof over his kids' heads. You build windmills to produce sustainable power for the whole world instead of relying on gas so much, and then let the terrorist work there. You give him education on safe farming practices, then give him animals and seeds to start. Where is the politician, where is the person, who understands this? I don't hear them.
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