What's a few lives?
Today, I was in the Bangor, ME airport, putting my children on a plane to Wyoming for the school year. It was a most sad day.
While we were there, there were about 200 young marines lolling about the airport, freshly in from NC and waiting for the plane that was to take them to Iraq. As they boarded their plane, I applauded, because what else can you do for someone who has volunteered to fight for our country.
Nevertheless, as they filed carefully out of the terminal and one by one entered the plane, I couldn't help but wonder how many of these young men would never be returning home again. And of those who would, how many would be maimed, a lost limb here, lost vision there, the best and brightest young men and women of this country coming back broken and damaged, if not physically, then certainly emotionally, psychologically.
And the hell of it is, as I sat there watching these brave young people go overseas for a nine month tour of duty, in my heart of hearts, I know that they're being asked to go over and give of their bodies, their psyches and even their lives in support of an unconscionable war. They are not protecting our country from anything, they are not making the world a better place, they are being asked to risk everything so that a few chessmasters in Washington D.C. can move a few more pieces around the board and solidify a bit more personal power.
I honestly don't know how President Bush sleeps at night.
Liam.
posted by Liam at 8/21/2005 09:57:00 PM
3 Comments:
Read Barrone - link at Instapundit.
Monday, August 22, 2005 10:57:00 AM
from what I understand, Bush has plenty of medications these days to help him sleep...among other things.
Monday, August 22, 2005 12:48:00 PM
Ralph,
I finally got time to read Barone's piece, and it doesn't change anything I've said here.
Before I continue, anyone who wants to read the poll that Barone was referring to, it can be found here.
It indicates (in part) that support for suicide bombers in support of Islam is dropping among Moslems. This seems to indicate to some people that our war in Iraq is justified. Now, let's take this apart a bit.
First, it really doesn't matter what the common Moslems feel about things. It depends what the radicals believe, and how many of them there are. The majority of American Christians do not believe in bombing abortion clinics (whether they believe abortion is wrong or not). Those are actions taken by extremists. So I don't particularly care if someone says "Hey, our publicity has changed the percentage of support for bombing of abortion clinics", because the people who do it aren't inclined to be swayed by public opinion.
Second, it's been shown time and again that our actions against Iraq have nothing to do with terrorism, except in the delusional (or lying) mind of George W. Bush and his administration. The people who are attacking us there are people who feel they are protecting their homeland from our intrusion, *NOT* people who feel that it's an appropriate place to bring terror to the United States. So if the war we're fighting there has little to do with terrorism, how (other than perhaps by tiring people of violence) does it have anything to do with a change in attitude towards terror?
We seem to have given up on the idea that Iraq will end up democracy, so we aren't accomplishing anything that way. Iraq was a major target of al Qaeda because they were (for better or worse) a secular society. Saddam Hussein's tactics, although abhorrent, were not all that much more extreme in his battle to keep his nation secular than the tactics Bush is taking in that same country. But when Saddam did it, he was a monster oppressing his people. When Bush does it, he's a liberator fighting the extremists in order to free the people of Iraq. Either way, the innocent people of Iraq die.
It's wonderful that a large percentage of Islamic people changed their tune between 2002 and 2004 with regard to suicide bombings. But there are a lot of reasons for that, most (if not all) of which do not revolve around the United States.
Maybe it's because they're coming to recognize that suicide bombers take out as many innocent Moslems as non-Moslems.
Maybe it's because the political climate right now makes it much more terrifying to speak in opposition to the United States where in 2002 perhaps it was more terrifying to speak in opposition to the extremists.
But I don't see this change in public opinion reflected in any drop in the number of suicide bombings, so it's hard to see how it really has any effect on anything.
To put public opinion polls into perspective, keep in mind that George W. Bush's approval ratings have consistently been below 50% since well before the election. The voter polls all showed Kerry winning by 5%. And yet Bush won the election.
So either you have to posit that the election results were corrupted, or you have to recognize that public opinion does not even translate into public action. People who disapproved of Bush still voted for him. People who reported they planned to vote for Kerry voted for Bush.
So people say they support Kerry, and people say they oppose suicide bombers. Bush still wins and the suicide bombings keep happening. Who cares about the polls?
Me, I care about 250 young marines I saw going over to Iraq to fight and kill and bleed and die, in the name of a war we shouldn't have been in, and it sickens me. I care about the thousands of other armed forces over there likewise in harms way.
If they were in Afghanistan, tracking down Osama bin Laden, it would be sad that they had to risk their lives, but heroic that they were willing to do it. Being in Iraq, it's tragic that they're doing this, for Bush's political power instead of for any real or logical or justifiable reason. It's still heroic that they are willing to stand up and fight for our nation. It's just a shame that our leaders think so little of their heroism that they're willing to saccrifice them with no more thought than one gives to saccrificing a pawn in a chess match.
Liam
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 12:49:00 PM
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