ignoring Iraq
How does this not get more attention? I mean, it's not even the lead story in the article I'm citing, and the article itself was buried.
Yesterday was apparently "the bloodiest day in Iraq in almost two months." In an article headlined "U.S. Warns Iraq it Won't Support Sectarian Goals," Sabrina Tavernise and Robert F. Worth write in the N.Y. Times:
I don't have an answer here--I'm not so liberal that I think we should just pull out now and let Iraq sort itself out. Say what you will about the decision to go to war (obviously I disagreed; unfortunately noone in the White House asked for my opinion), but now that we're there, we should at least make sure there's a government in place before we leave. Too bad it feels like that's still far off.
I heard a crazy story over the weekend. My cousin Darren's friend Sean enlisted in the National Guard as a reserve after he finished college (he studied telecommunications engineering, a desirable skill in the military). He fulfilled his reserve obligation, putting in his one-weekend-a-month of service for the required amount of time. In the meantime, he got married. A couple of years after his reserve assignment ended, with the Iraq War underway, his wife became pregnant. Shortly after that, he was called to active duty. They cited a shortage of telecommunications specialists as the reason for calling him up even though he wasn't even an active reserve, and due to the top-secret nature of what he would be doing, he wasn't allowed to have any contact with his wife during his entire tour of duty. He didn't get to see or hear about his newborn baby until after he returned from active duty; luckily he wasn't hurt. (As I said, some of this is hard to believe, but my cousin Darren swears by this and he's generally reliable.)
In a less anecdotal account, my-coworker Brett spent time on the U-MASS student paper with Jill Carroll, who went to Iraq as an investigative journalist and is now a hostage. Maybe because she's about my age, or in my field, or a friend-of-a-friend, but this strikes a chord for me.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/19/ap/world/mainD8F80AA05.shtml
It's easy to forget the costs of war, for the Iraqis, for American soldiers, for the families waiting at home for their loved ones, even for the media. Even though we might be sick of hearing about the day-to-day heartbreaks, it's important to keep that front and center as a constant reminder that we are at war. Hopefully that will put more pressure on finding a resolution.
Yesterday was apparently "the bloodiest day in Iraq in almost two months." In an article headlined "U.S. Warns Iraq it Won't Support Sectarian Goals," Sabrina Tavernise and Robert F. Worth write in the N.Y. Times:
Bombing attacks on Monday, including one inside a crowded commuter bus in Baghdad and another in a restaurant in northern Iraq, left at least 26 dead and more than 60 wounded. One American soldier was also killed.It's awful enough that we're still over there, but now we're all so tired of hearing about it that we've almost completely tuned it out. No one wants to talk about it anymore in day-to-day terms, not even the press. Meanwhile the bodies continue to pile up, and the tension between the Sunnis and Shiites that will need to coexist in a new Iraqi government shows little signs of abating.
I don't have an answer here--I'm not so liberal that I think we should just pull out now and let Iraq sort itself out. Say what you will about the decision to go to war (obviously I disagreed; unfortunately noone in the White House asked for my opinion), but now that we're there, we should at least make sure there's a government in place before we leave. Too bad it feels like that's still far off.
I heard a crazy story over the weekend. My cousin Darren's friend Sean enlisted in the National Guard as a reserve after he finished college (he studied telecommunications engineering, a desirable skill in the military). He fulfilled his reserve obligation, putting in his one-weekend-a-month of service for the required amount of time. In the meantime, he got married. A couple of years after his reserve assignment ended, with the Iraq War underway, his wife became pregnant. Shortly after that, he was called to active duty. They cited a shortage of telecommunications specialists as the reason for calling him up even though he wasn't even an active reserve, and due to the top-secret nature of what he would be doing, he wasn't allowed to have any contact with his wife during his entire tour of duty. He didn't get to see or hear about his newborn baby until after he returned from active duty; luckily he wasn't hurt. (As I said, some of this is hard to believe, but my cousin Darren swears by this and he's generally reliable.)
In a less anecdotal account, my-coworker Brett spent time on the U-MASS student paper with Jill Carroll, who went to Iraq as an investigative journalist and is now a hostage. Maybe because she's about my age, or in my field, or a friend-of-a-friend, but this strikes a chord for me.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/19/ap/world/mainD8F80AA05.shtml
It's easy to forget the costs of war, for the Iraqis, for American soldiers, for the families waiting at home for their loved ones, even for the media. Even though we might be sick of hearing about the day-to-day heartbreaks, it's important to keep that front and center as a constant reminder that we are at war. Hopefully that will put more pressure on finding a resolution.
posted by Zackattack at 10:27 AM
1 Comments:
There's nothing about the military that is surprising anymore. With the way things are handled and the potential for families to be ripped apart, one wonders what is meant by America Will Prevail in Operation Freedom. At what cost? At least Sean was alive and well when he came home to his newborn baby. Some other fathers aren't lucky enough to even know that they HAD children.
This is obviously a sore topic for me...ah well, Life Goes On, I suppose
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