Sen Warner has said: "Our great nation has an enormous capacity for sacrifice and hardship when we understand the cause is just."

Apparently, he doesn't have a brother in the military.

The death toll for American soldiers in Iraq is more than 1700. To put that into perspective for me, that number is approximately the size of the student body of my college. That number is larger than the entire student body of Temple Law.

But I don't need it put into perspective. I already have some.

My brother is in the military. He told me not to worry about him because his boat was in dry dock for at least two years and he would not be shipping out. Guess what? He left Tuesday for a "trial run" and will be back in one month. He will stay home for less than a month and then leave for six months. He will miss the birth of his child.

I am not clueless. I understood that my brother was always at risk when he signed up. My older brother was in the service for a number of years, as were all of my uncles and my grandfather. I understand the military life. My younger brother is career military and has been in the service for more than ten years. Makes him sound old, I guess. He will be 30 years old on Monday.

It is no real surprise to any of us that he's going out. I think we all knew that, as troops die and fewer sign up, that the risk of him being sent out dramatically increased despite the "reassurances". I just hate being lied to. I hate that VP Cheney said that the insurgency is weakening and just today, the top military commander in the Gulf said that wasn't true. I hate that our men and women are dying every day. I hate that my brother could be one of them.

He was involved in Bosnia and he came back. I know in my heart he'll come back this time, too. I just wish everybody's brother did.

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www.taxgirl.com

Lawmummy,


That is a very eloquent post. My family fought in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. A quirk of timing left them out of the conflicts between then and Vietnam. I had two uncles serve in that conflict, and both fortunately came back. I myself thought about both the Air Force and the Navy.


There is honor and valor in service in the military. As I look at my infant sons I worry about them. I worry that if they were to join the military they will die in some sort of Children’s Crusade.


I think about these lyrics ...

Quote:

Pawns in the game are not victims of chance

That's what I think is happening now.

__________________
Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. - Robert Orben

I was teaching night classes at a military base (in a military town, I might add) in the south during the run-up to this war, and it just broke my heart to see more and more empty seats each day as my students were deployed with usually only 3 hours notice in the wee hours of the morning, mostly to "an undisclosed location in southwest Asia," though a few did go to Europe to replace troops being deployed from there to Iraq. Ever since that time, I scan the names of the dead, hoping I don't see anyone I know. Most come back fine, but you don't want one of "yours" to be the exception. I'll be thinking of your family; I know it's got to be hard for all of you to hold your breaths and hope for the best for one who really IS "yours" in the truest sense.

Don't know what to say, Lawmummy. Will not turn this into a political discussion except to say that each time I hear or read anything about this war, I can't help but wonder what the exit strategy is, or if there even is one. How long? How many? Sigh.

Sending you a HUG across the miles...

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- We must be the change we wish to see in the world -
Mahatma Gandhi

There is no exit strategy. There was no real enterence strategy either. They wanted this war for a long time. This was an action that was taken for the benefit of very few people and without full consideration of the lives that could be lost. War profiteering and family vendettas were the inspiration and with no regard to what impact it would have on our country. They beat the Iraqis very easy in 1991 and expected them to lie down and allow us to change their ways of life with no trouble at all. They couldn't have been any more wrong.

Unfortunately we do have to wait until the Iraqis are capable of providing for themselves before there will be an end. Many more troops will be put in danger and many more families will suffer through loss, and there will never be any of these people held accountable for their deceit.

This collection of incompetent leaders have left an enormous wound in our world, in the name of American freedom, that will take decades to heal.

War should never be taken for granted.

Well put. :cry:

__________________
- We must be the change we wish to see in the world -
Mahatma Gandhi

Yes, excellent thread. Our sincere hopes and wishes are with everyone.

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A friend of mine has a husband who is serving in Iraq. He is forty-six years old and is a top Air Force pilot. He was deployed about two years ago. He missed his oldest son's college graduation last month. He would have been so proud to be there. His wife and children now wonder if they will ever see him again. They go for weeks on end not hearing a word from him. They are now holding on to the hope that this war will soon end. As we all do.