After spending over 11 years in the United States Army as a Military Policeman in the 9th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, and the 1st Cavalry Division, I know what it means to deploy to dangerous areas. I know that in time of war, people take stock of what life really means.
What I don't know is what it is like to send your child to war. I know that, at first, people are doing it with a sense of patriotism.
I find that as I peruse memorial pages set up at Army Times . com, I am connected to so many people in so many ways. In the opening days of this newest Iraqi combat action, I found 6 people that I had worked with and never will see walking this earth again. As more people lose life to shrapnel, bullets, and air crashes, I also find more native americans from across the united states on the casualty list.
I have a personal point of view on the war-I feel I am entitled to that view after having been in Iraq. But there are many things about the war I don't understand.
One of the things that I will never know is how parents feel. I don't know what pain it is to bury your own children. I think that I "understand" them, but I will never know how that feels. I know that in the pain of death, it becomes more apparent that war should be the absolute-last-resort action. The first death in war is just as painful as the 1,207th death.
Whether it is Iraqi, Afghani or American or Native American or any other race of people involved in the war, it brings tears to me to see the people on this list. Just think, about it: justifiably there are some Iraqis and Afghanis who don't like us. But how many of them are in their Army just doing what their man in charge orders? They all deserve recognition from all of us. (I'm not trying to bring honor to the terrorists, and the insurgents; they're in a different class.) We all deserve to know that lives are being lost.
We all deserve to know that our children are being killed. We all have to find the answer to the question "is it really worth it?" If it is, then we really need to start honoring the dead who have passed on, giving their lives in our stead. We need to start honoring the parents who will have an empty spot at Christmas, a grandchild without a father, a mother, an uncle, an aunt or a cousin. If we really thought before we sent them overseas that they wouldn't come back, maybe we'd find a different way of doing it-this war business. I'm not saying we shouldn't be there, I'm saying your brother, your uncle, your sister, your aunt, your cousins, they deserve to have every chance at a pursuit of happiness and life, when we send them into harms way.
There are a multitude of actions. The big man in charge refused to send a troop-heavy force over there and sent troops over there like he was running an oil company, send
"as few as possible, keep the costs down." Monetary costs compare nothing to a person's life. We needed to send more divisions, we needed to send them with a realistic plan for completion. We needed to question whether
being right is more important than being peaceful. It seemed like it was action taken that was too easy. Like it wasn't his kids he was sending over there. It's just my thought. If it makes sense or if it doesn't, it doesn't matter. I haven't lost a child over there, so there are some things I am not entitled to say.
If you have time, take a look at the children that we're losing over there.
http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.htmlGet to know the kids, the dads, the moms, the brothers, the aunties and uncles.
