SHADOWS OF DOUBT
My father went to Vietnam. After being there during the tumult in ’68, he was a real fortunate son who came home in ’69. My father had few if any visible injuries; the psychological scars, though, are legible to my family and me to this day, some 38 years after his return. Make no mistake about it, we ARE VERY GRATEFUL for his duty and his safe return, and after reading The Day’s “Coming Home Wounded,” courtesy of the Associated Press, sometimes I don’t think we know how grateful we are. In short, the human price for war manifests itself in many different forms.
As the blogger at Drinking Liberally in Milford has duly noted this week, the troops recognize the failure of this war more so now than ever. They want and deserve to come home especially now that it’s become apparent that all benchmarks, reports, and first-hand accounts suggest Iraq spirals in failure.
Some officials are trying to do something about the war aside from just debating and spinning. Thanks to Senator Jim Webb’s proposed legislation, if soldiers were to be re-deployed, they at least deserve a well-earned rest. But no thanks to certain hawks, including Insane in the Membrane Captain Lieberman, that legislation never came to pass.
It seems that the troops don’t believe in the mission any more. It seems that their shadows of doubt arise from authentic experience, not press room spin. It seems that they are grounded in reality whereas Chimpy and toddler company continue in their arrested development of temper tantrums and ego-mania. It seems we need to listen to the soldiers’ misgivings, for they are, after all, on the front line.
3 comments:
My dad was also pretty well messed up by his time(s) at war, and the one he spent the majority of his time in was one that we all agreed on.
6 years or so of war in 5 different theaters left him with shrapnel in the back that caused him great pain off and on throughout his life, he seldom slept more than 3 hours at any given time, when he got mad he got MAD, and he drank himself into utter stupors.
No human being should be subjected to the horrors of war unless there is simply no other way out. Of course cowards like Chimpy and Shooter wouldn't know a damned thing about how horrifying the effects of war can be on somebody, since they moved heaven and Earth to avoid having to serve themselves.
Great blog and terrific comment.
There are 2 things I have no doubt about.
1. Genral Petraeus will come out in in September with the GOP talking points designated by Bush. It will include many statements similar to "But they have made significant progress in this area" to support the great achievement of having met none of the 18 benchmarks.
2. All of those soldiers will be taken to the article 15 woodshed for what they have said publicly. Demoted and fined. The military went after Kokesh while he was already separated from the military and 2 weeks from his 2nd and official honorable discharge. These heroes will suffer for their actions. The actions of speaking the truth.
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