… sent an article this morning with a rationalization for our staying in Iraq, something about honoring our commitment to the parents of the Iraqi youth. I couldn’t finish it. It got all blurry.
My tears were about the loss of my friend. We had marched together in the Civil Rights days. We had opposed the Viet Nam Conflict together. We both served in the military during that era in non-combat zones. Now we’re old and retired, and I don’t really know what to say. At least Viet Nam was just a mistake, a bad extension of National Defense policies in the Cold War period.
The war in Iraq is not a similar kind of mistake. It is much, much different – a war with hidden motivations that had little to do with National Defense. It is a war of conquest wrapped in sheep’s clothing. My friend can’t see that. Many still can’t. I can’t really talk to my friend about it. He thinks I’m blind. I think he’s blind. We’re both patriotic people. And it reminds me of another friend – one who died in Viet Nam before most of us even knew where it was. He was a patriotic person too.
I want to make this Memorial Day about the people who died in wars that made sense, but I can’t stop thinking about this one long enough to bring it off. I can only think about the parents who have lost kids in this absurd war, and the kids they lost. And friends I’ve lost for no good reason.
I guess one is supposed to be sad on Memorial Day…
Siegfried Sassoon, Suicide in the Trenches (1917)I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
60 minutes did a show last night about a National Guard unit from Iowa. In this group of soldiers were fathers, sons, brothers. The correspondant from the show said that the 60 minutes crew with camera followed these men for 2 years. They filmed them getting married, becoming fathers, etc. These men were asked about going to war and they basically repeated the things Bush said about fighting the people who attacked us( of course not true) and how we have to fight them there so that we don’t have to fight them here etc. I’d like to talk to Tony Snow just one time in a corner somewhere about how “nobody ever said that Iraq had anything to do with 911”. I forgot to mention that this group was due to come home soon but their families were told (before they were) that they would be part of the surge and their time in Iraq has been extended. In the film there is a woman whose son and husband are in Iraq and she is a nurse. She was interviewed before the men left and she was happy and excited they were going together. She has since been interviewed and she is being treated for serious depression. According to one woman interviewed a lot of the wives are being treated for depression. A lot of the men in Iraq feel very different than they did when they went. Now men are saying that it is useless and nothing they do is helping Iraq. The film should be required viewing for Congress and the Administration. It shows how men in war look after 2 years. I couldn’t tell that the men filmed in Iowa were the same men interviewed in Iraq because they all had aged so visibly. I don’t always like the 60 minutes show but last night CBS and Scott Pelley did all soldiers fighting in Iraq a great service for their sacrifice to our country. I’m sorry to take too much of your blog but I had to write this.
Joy,
Take all the space you want. Thanks…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052502032.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty.
By Andrew J. Bacevich
Sunday, May 27, 2007; Page B01