My alarm clock is set to radio, and the radio is set to NPR. I can't deal with the buzzer option...you're likely to be peeling me off the ceiling when it goes off. So every morning I am awakened to Morning Edition and try to make it out of the bed before Radio Reader.
This morning I was lying in bed listening to two mothers talk about what it was like losing their sons in Iraq. This story coincided with the death of the 2000th American soldier in Iraq.
I'll let that one sink in for a sec. TWO THOUSANDTH AMERICAN CASUALTY.
I've never been a fan of the war and I'm even less of a fan of Dubya, but come on...enough is enough. How many more of our own have to die? Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost compassion for the plight of the Iraqi people, and I understand that they needed help to get out from under Sadaam Hussein. Got it. No problem there. USA=heroes. Got it. But aren't we kinda done? Haven't we been training them to take on the peacekeeping work in their country?
I listened this morning to a mother say that when she saw the gray vehicle with the man in camoflauge fatigues park in her driveway she just started screaming because she knew what it meant. Another mother said that she met the military personnel on her front porch because somehow if she could keep them out of her house "it wouldn't be happening." When that same woman was asked if she thought that her family's sacrifice was worth it for the good of her country, her answer was very simple.
"Hell no."
I don't have children yet, but I lay there in my bed and cried with these two women this morning. To have that much strength and not completely fall apart in the face of losing your child...the second woman went on to say that she had seen on the news an Iraqi woman, dressed all in black, clinging to a coffin and wailing...and she wanted to put her arms around that woman because "I know exactly how she is feeling."
I admit freely to being a liberal and a democrat. I admit freely to thinking that our country is being run by a frat boy who puts his cronies in offices that they aren't qualified for and can't talk his way out of a wet paper bag. I understand that a great majority of Americans probably think those who believe as I do are un-patriotic, un-Christian, un-fillintheblank, and that's fine, that's their perrogative. But in this post and on this issue, please understand, I'm speaking as someone who loves her country and her fellow Americans...and doesn't want to see any more of them die. This war is a sham. We need our troops to come back home.
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14 comments:
No one will find celebration of the 2000th death here. I think it is an important figure however...2000 of our folks are dead and we're no closer to pulling out of Iraq (at least that's how I understand the Administration's stance) than we were after the 2nd or the 555th...
I'm not taking this "milestone" as an opportunity to suddenly oppose the "war." I've been against it from the beginning.
I also wish that journalists on both sides would be more careful about calling the enemy "Islamic" terrorists. Radical islamic beliefs, so far out of the mainstream of that religion that they are barely the same thought process are what fuel terrorist attacks on the US. This type of ommission leads to more stereotyping and more animosity toward people who have nothing to do with terrorism, but happen to practice the Islamic religion.
I still say that this war is a sham, our troops should be able to come home, and we should let Iraq rebuild Iraq. /shrug
Just a question, are we grouping NPR in with the "leftist media?"
amy do you think this war is a good thing? i'm not attacking, just interested in your take on things as it seems very different from my own.
Praise God and pass the ammunition. I understand all those things are good things. Like I said in my original post, USA=hero, I get it. While I think the war is bogus, I support those men and women that have chosen military service as their career, and am in awe of the courage that it takes to knowingly put yourself in harm's way (to quote W) day after day. My original question stands, however: When is enough going to be enough? When will we be done?
Further, I have been mulling over the quote attributed to Michelle Malkin and I have to say I find it offensive. To say that those of us that are anti-war couldn't wait for the death of ANY soldier in Iraq, be it number 1 or number 1999 is horrible. Most of the people I know, my family included, are against the continuance of the war, and we don't sit around anxiously awaiting casualty reports. It is because of those reports that we are against this seemingly never-ending war. Why does that not make sense?
Further, I have a friend and two family members that are both in the armed forces. The friend is in the Marines, and was scheduled to come home last year. Didn't happen. The two family members, husbands of my cousins Laura and Audrey, have both been and come back (at least one has come back)and I'm sure will be returning. One of them just joined the guard and got called up...the other is in the Air Force and is a fighter pilot. This "war" has a very personal face for me, and it has just gone on way too long. 2000 deaths too long.
"There is proof that he provided financial support, training and shelter to at least seven terrorist organizations, five of which have been involved in attacks in which Americans were killed or injured."
Okay - where is the proof?
And even if your view is that this war was necessary (even though, in my opinion, it was about big business, oil and lining the pockets of the good ole' US of A)when is enough, enough?
When do American troops get to stop dying?
Dave, the UK is a great place to live but it has its shortfalls, I assure you. However, you pretty much couldn't pay me to live in the States, under Dubya's regime. I am ashamed to be an American most times.
Amy, when did you become so radically conservative - it's frightening. You should get to know my ex-husband... crikey.
"When do American troops get to stop dying?"
That was the point entirely of the original post.
When does my cousin Laura's husband get to come home? I think they were married about a month before his guard unit was called up.
When does my cousin Audrey not have to worry that her husband is flying into a bomb?
When do I get to hear from my friend Adam (via Candy) again? It's been a long time since his last message.
When is enough enough?
"I slowly began moving into conservatism after I started working in social services, where every day I'm confronted by what happens to people when they don't take responsibility for their own lives and instead expect the government to solve all their woes."
See, that's interesting to me because I too work in social services. The folks I work with have to depend on the government (or in my case, specifically, the department of mental health) to take care of them because they cannot do it themselves. It's not a matter of won't. My tax dollars go to make sure that Jane Doe has her clozaril so that she doesn't try to murder her roommate, or that John Doe gets his therapy and meds in the sexual predator's unit so that hopefully he won't re-offend when he is released. Helping those that can't help themselves...that's what I'm all about, and that's why I have no problem with the part of the "war" where we took Sadaam out of power (the draping of the American Flag over his statue on national television was a bit much, but I digress). The Iraqi people couldn't do that for themselves so we helped them. That's done, so we should be as well.
My dad made an interesting point yesterday (considering he's a minister and all)...he said "I'm not sure why the USA feels like they have a moral responsibility to rush into a country and kill the dictator every time there is a dictator, just because their beliefs are not the same as ours." But that's a point for another post... :)
They're not always different...one of our clients tried to become one of your clients, remember? I'm still trying to figure out why PTI isn't under the same umbrella as the court system (legally required to pay for interpreters) unless it's because it's a voluntary program...but that's neither here nor there. :)
The sexual predator unit is housed within a prison, as is the forensic unit...just so you feel a bit safer. :)
Amy:
So - wait.. Let me get this straight. You're all for an American government that won't fund social programs to help it's own people, but you're guns a-blazin' to save other countries whose beliefs differ from our own?
"Our moral responsibility is to kick the crap out of dictators who fund and shelter terrorists who hate and want to kill us. "
Why is that our moral responsibility to save the world? Why not focus on our own country which currently, can not even provide for and save its own citizens as evidenced by hurricane Katrina?
I know we will not come to an agreement on this topic - but I am alarmed by your views Amy. Not because you have them really, but because there are lots of people who think like that. I find it very scary.
On another note - I find it very ironic that such a conservative person who doesn't think the government should take care of its people, actually works for the government who pays her to help take care of its people. I wonder if your views flavour the help you give people?
(totally not a personal attack, honest)
I do find your views scary, Amy. Sorry. It doesn't make me like you less as a person - I just don't get it. At all.
and here's a fourth.
Why do I find your views scary.. Let me think about that. I mostly find it scary to think that you don't believe that the President lied to the American people about the real reasons for war.
The amount of money that has spent has put the US into virtual bankrupcy. The debt will be paid by who? Our children and THEIR children.
The government is being run by a bunch of criminals who put their own financial interests above the interests of the country and are busy looting the Treasury like it's their own personal piggy bank.
That is what I find scary. I think your arguments are strong, but the underlying beliefs (and hey - they're yours so that's cool) just freak me out.
What do you think of:
"We will examine all the contracts that Saddam Hussein has made, and we will cancel all those that are not in the interest of the Iraqi people and will reopen bidding on them," said Faisal Qaragholi, operations officer of the Iraqi National Congress, the opposition coalition based in London that plays a central role in the American anti-Hussein strategy.
`Ahmed Chalabi, the INC leader, has gone even further, proposing the creation of consortium of American companies to develop Iraq's oil fields.'
Uhhh...
sorry to take up so much room in your blog, nan... want us to take it elsewhere?
Well...kinda. :)
The reason is not that I'm not enjoying the debate. It's very interesting.
The reason is that the point of the post is lost now. The emotion that prompted me to post had nothing to do with why we went after Sadaam in the first place, whether or not we should be in the biz of deposing tyrants, or who was waiting to make what kind of big deal out of which death.
The point was that I heard these two women telling their stories about their children dying, and while I do not have children yet myself, I cannot imagine that kind of pain. The point was that I don't understand why they had to go through that, whether they were the mom of number 1 or number 2000. The point is that it needs to stop. That was the point.
This debate has gotten me out on the 'net reading though, and some of the things I'm finding terrify me (and I'll tell you why! LOL). Blogs that talk about being god-fearing in one sentence and "rag-headed moon worshippers" in the next...I've seen "Kill them all and let God sort them out" more times than I can count...
I am not going to apologize for not harboring that kind of hate towards another human, not any human, not even a human that feels I am an infidel and deserve to die. It's just not who I am. It's not in my genetic makeup. I cannot hate people that I have seen/touched/known that have hurt me so badly that I almost haven't come back from it...so there is no way on earth I can hate someone that I have never seen/touched/known, regardless of their politics or religious beliefs.
And the hiding behind the Christian religion I've seen out there in order to defend Bush/the "war"/etc etc etc just makes me nauseous. All it does is prove to this preacher's daughter that the hypocrasy and backstabbing and dare I say arrogance that I saw growing up in "good Christian people" runs rampant in the good old US of A.
Peace is my way. If it gets me blown to bits, at least I will die without hate in my heart.
I was just surfing through some links I found on blogs that I read often...that's where I found the disturbing stuff. So I resolved to stay in my comfort zone. NPR, the BBC, and occasionally WaPo and NYT. The rest of it just makes me sad to be lumped under the same flag as the authors I read when viewed by the rest of the world.
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