Last night, we watched a Tivo’d Larry King Live with Al Gore. At one point, Gore was talking about the War, the deceit that lead to it, and the diversion from the real task – Al Qaeda. At some point, King said, "So they died in vain?" referring to our soldiers. Gore said "Of course not" and went on to give a long answer that I don’t recall.
If it were my daughter, I would think she died in vain. I suppose one can’t say that without inflicting more pain on the bereaved, or listening to the right wing pseudo-patriotic rhetoric – getting a lot of flag-waving emails. But the truth is, "Of course they died in vain, like their parent’s friends who died in vain in Viet Nam."
If you wanted to find a way to answer the question in a more empathic way, you might say, "I’m not the one to answer that question. I’d suggest asking their parents." But I wouldn’t say, "Of course not."
I’m with you on this one. Although Al is a politician, and so he was probably just trying not to alienate people. But yeah, totally with you.
– Your Daughter