Last week was a week for reflection, tribute, gratitude, and awe. In rain and mud we pressed flags into the sod, solemnly reflecting on how each flag represented a life lost in the desert of Iraq, or on the streets of Baghdad.
Last week was a reminder: Don’t take your freedoms, your comfort for granted. Don’t become desensitized to the headlines. Don’t forget to pay tribute to those who deserve your undying gratitude.
In the last six days, since we placed those flags, ten more American soldiers have lost their lives. Six more days. Ten more flags.
Three years ago today our President donned a flight suit for an impressive photo-op. In front of a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” our President declared an end to “Major Combat Operations” in Iraq.
The war was over.
2,261 American soldiers have died since this war “ended.”
Along with 17,500 more wounded.
Last week I prayed for the families of those soldiers who gave their lives thus far. This week I pray for the families of those still fighting, for the soldiers themselves. I pray for a real end to this war. The kind of end that doesn’t come with a big photo-op, or shiny plastic banner. I’m praying for the kind of end to this war where I’m not afraid to open the newspaper each morning.
I often hear from those on the political right-wing that it is unpatriotic to call for an end to this war. Perhaps I am not a patriot then. Perhaps I don’t support our troops or their families. Perhaps I am just selfish when I say
I want every one of my friends to come home alive.
But I don’t believe that’s an unpatriotic hope to cling to, I refuse to believe it makes me a traitor to ask hard questions of our leaders. And I do believe the stirring in my heart I feel each time I watch our American flag wave in the wind is love for our country and not hatred. I am an American, I am a Democrat, I am a Patriotic son of the Midwest, and I want a real end to this war.
I don’t want another fake ending. I don’t want another “Vistory Just Around The Corner”…
I want the kind of end to this damned war where our brothers and sisters in Iraq stop dying. I want to hear the kind of truth about this war where someone finally tells me why we’re really over there at all. I want to see the kind of end to this war where
next year there aren’t any more flags in the ground.
Happy May-Day everybody, but there aren’t any flowers in Baghdad.
NOTE: This post represents the opinions of John, not the UNO Democrats community as a whole. I’m sure some would have liked to leave the “top-post” a while longer on the Tribute to the Fallen post. Several people where starting to add comments that were getting increasingly partisan, so I thought we needed a new post to let that emotion out on. I think it is only natural. Last week we felt sadness, grief, lament. Now we feel anger, a desire to do something to stop the dying. At least that’s what I feel.
The morning we put the flags up I told a Vietnam Vet who lost a leg, and a good bit of his hearing and eye-sight in the war, about the flags. Keep in mind this is a man who is a registered Republican, who votes Republican most of the time. The first thing he said to me was, “doesn’t it break your heart to know now that it was all for lies?”
The Center for American Progress has an interesting graph on the dichotomy of “mission accomplished” vs what the last three years have brought us.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/01/mission-accomplished-by-the-numbers/
Interesting polling data over at Politics In Nebraska website:
http://politicsinnebraska.blogspot.com/
Is that relevant to this conversation at all, Brian?
2,400 dead now in Iraq. Three years from the day that Bush played dress up, and we’ve lost so many since then. Excellent post, John. I just hope that there is an end in sight. And that we aren’t about to embark on another mistake.
Hi Dave Sund at http://davesund.blogspot.com/:
I think it could be relevant—it really depends on whether or not someone thinks it is or is not relevant, or relative.
Have a great day!
Dave, I hope you’re right about not embarking on any more mistakes.
I can’t even begin to think about what Iran would be like. Let’s hope anything about that war is pure speculation.
Could you imagine whats next with korea. I mean iran on one hand but we are facing an even mnore threatening path with korea. Iran=future nukes and korea=nut job KIM!