Wasted
Gut wrenching story in the WP this morning about the war's forever impacts. This is nothing new to anyone who understands war but, given the America's collective ignorance of war's reality, the story is a timely reminder of costs that will last far into the future. Linda Bilimes and Joseph Stiglitz have quantified the long term costs but this story puts human beings into that calculation.
One story connected with me deeply.
Amanda Jordan, whose Marine husband was killed three days into the war, says she doesn't know what bothers her more _ the days that go by when no one speaks of the war, or the punditry. At a local diner she frequents with her 11-year-old son near their home in Enfield, Conn., she's contemplated standing up and leaving so he doesn't hear when people say Iraq was unnecessarily invaded.
"This is like my life. You're saying my spouse, my child's father, is dead for no reason," says Jordan, a 39-year-old former paralegal who is studying to be a therapist specializing in grief. "That's a pretty harsh thing to hear all the time."
I'm so sorry, Mrs. Jordan, for your loss and for the hurt at the thought that his death was a waste. No doubt, your husband served with honor and courage. You can find some solace in the appreciation of his comrades and his dedication to you and his country. But I cannot, if I look objectively at what the war is doing to America and Iraq, see that this mission was worth his or any of the almost many lives--American and Iraqi--forever changed by this war.
I respect your husband's sacrifice and your family's loss but I cannot ignore the fundamental fact that America's leaders betrayed us all by starting an unnecessary war. I must speak and act to prevent more lives from being wasted and to change American policy to one that actually sustains our security in a rapidly changing world. I apologize if any of my statements cause you grief. I speak and act because I want America to be worthy of your husband's courage and honor.
Godspeed, Mrs. Jordan. May this nation never forget your husband's sacrifice and may it never again betray that sacrifice.
Labels: iraq, military families
posted by Rez Dog at 9:03 AM
2 Comments:
The covenant of being in the Reserves and the National Guard has also been shattered. This unnecessary war has spent the blood and lives of those who were there in case of dire need -- they did not volunteer to be casually wasted because this administration did not have a big enough war machine for its ambitious resources grab.
one of the harshest and most difficult steps on my own small recovery with PTSD involved the realization and acceptance of the sheer waste of the lives. my waste list had names, guys i fought and bled with. wasted. purely and simply wasted. i needed to study the process that brought us into vietnam. i needed to study vietnam in the 150 preceeding years to understand that from the perspective of a vietnamese we were merely the next on a long, seemingly endless list of invaders, there to be driven out. to really understand the magnitude of the waste you must first understand that the problems of the american involvement began with roosevelt, were carried through by macarthur (who totally bypassed the brutal japanese occupation of indochina), perpetuated by truman (without truman loaning the american ships, and military equipment the french would have been unable to attempt to re-establish colonial rule), further continued by eisenhower (sending in the first "advisors" and then discarding the results of a national election because it would have given a victory to "communists"), amplified by kennedy, amplified to the level of feedback by lbj and finally twisted and spun into a complete and total lie by nixon.
the harshest truth is that after nearly 40 years of blundering and shamefull meddling the end result that nixon achieved in paris had nothing, nothing at all, which was not available to every single previous administration by simply doing nothing at all.
yes, it was a waste. yes, every death in iraq is a waste.
sad.
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