Sunday, February 04, 2007
Casualties of War
Last night I caught part of CNN's special about doctors and nurses working in military hospitals in Iraq. They may not be on the front lines(though I'm not even sure what that means in this war), but they are damn close. This was no MASH episode with docs making martinis in a homemade still. These were real life doctors and nurses doing their best to heal devastating physical and psychological wounds. You could sense their excitement at saving a fellow soldier and see their crushing anguish when they failed to do the same for an innocent Iraqi girl. They worked with the same fervor whether the patient was American or Iraqi, child or insurgent. One surgeon remarked -and I'm paraphrasing- how great it was that they were present to heal a young Iraqi girl, but that maybe them being there in the first place put this girl in danger. I have many conflicted feelings about this war and I understand war, even when justified, is a brutal, awful series of events. However, I don't see how anyone who saw these victims-one commanding officer was commended for picking up all the pieces of his wounded soldier-could be eager to send anyone off to battle.
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It is not about eagerness. It is about doing your duty. To quote one Coach Underwood..." There are 3 types of people. There are the doers, there are those that talk about doing it, and there are those who watch it being done. Who are you?"
Most of those who are talking about it have a very narrow minded approach. They are just looking at Iraq as the whole war. Iraq is just a battle in the war. People ignore the simple fact that most of the "insurgants" killed have been Iranian or Syrian. There is a bigger war going on and Iraq is just one piece.
Those who watch are just usless. They dont want to be bothered with the details. They just want to be entertained. They are the ones that found it fascinating to watch the NY Times, CNN, and MSNBC show stunning footage of a American soldier's death.
The doers...no need to explain...they are the ones fighting the war. They see big picture. They understand what is at stake. They understand that the freedoms to talk and to watch aren't free.
It should be noted that everyone of the men and women that are fighting are volunteers. Noone has pressed them into service. They know fully of the risks. Not everyone has the nads to do what they are doing. But I guess it is easy to sit back a watch things on TV in the easy chair, eating chips and hotwings, drinking whatever, and say how bad things are.
I have never denigrated the efforts of our men and women in uniform. I also have written many times and said to friends that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan that I am extremely grateful that they do what they do so that I don't have to. Eager was probably the wrong word to use because I imagine no president takes lightly the responsibilty of sending others into harm's way. However, since we are free, thanks in part to two centuries of brave military service, I believe it is acceptable for the "talkers and watchers" to comment.
I assume your big picture is the war on terror. That was and is justified, however, a large part of it was abandoned when our focus shifted from primarily Afghanistan to primarily Iraq. As I implied in my post there are no easy answers. I simply meant that it is sad that anyone, volunteer or draftee, should be have to endure what those soldiers endure.
Let the pissing match begin!
what part of the war on terror shifted when Boston got freaked out about Mooninites?
I believe that the Bush administration is now going to declare a war on terror against the Cartoon Network as well as white men with dreadlocks.
I guess it must be nice to have served in the military, that way you can lay claim to being better than anyone else. Why are you fighting for my freedoms anyway if my opinion isn't going to matter? God forbid we don't all drink the koolaid.
Don't get me started on the good folks in Boston. I think it's a shame Turner is paying 2 million, for a complete overreaction, but it's probably a small price to pay to make the problem go away and maybe not have to deal with all the ignorant, fear mongering people out there.
honestly the United States will no longer exist in 10 years...we will either be part of an arab empire or annihilated along with the rest of the world...while we try to spread democracy around the world in order to bring peace, we must accept that other cultures want nothing to do with it. what is the right answer? i don't know. there must be some compromise where every religion/culture can exist peacefully. send over jesse jackson, he seems to have all the answers.
Exactly where did I mention that certain people should not have a say? Oh, let me stop you...I did not imply it either. To reword...would it have been easier to understand if I had said it is easy to play arm chair quarterback? It is easy to second guess everything if you are not making the decisions and most of the nightly news opinions are usually based on half the story.
WOW...feel the anger! Must have struck a nerve.
It should be noted that there currently is a movement to create the North American Union to compete with the Europeans. This will comprise the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. Dollar will become the North American Dollar or the N.A.D. Really.
As far as Mid east peace...it aint going to happen. They have been fighting each other for thousands of years. It is foolishness to believe they are going to stop now. Most of these people believe that our way of life is wrong. We should not try to force our morality on them. I said that during the Clinton years when he pissed of China about womens rights and I say that now about the mid east.
Again...feel the anger!!!
To quote: "Those who watch are just usless." Doesn't that say that there is no use for those of us not directly involved?
And you're right. It easy to play arm chair quarterback with this the war on terror and the war in Iraq(note they're intentionally seperated). Anybody with half a brain can easily observe that we've screwed up everything we've tried to do. And I think we've all seen that everything we've ever been told eventually turns out at best to be a half truth.
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