Every time I turned around today I saw photo after photo of young faces. They were smiling, handsome, proud, some in uniform, others posed with their spouse. I watched 30 second tributes to them from a variety of news anchors, and was left with great remorse and seething anger.
Memorial Day was established to honor the fallen who gave their lives serving in the military, but were never able to enjoy a hero's welcome. On this Memorial Day I can't feel pride as an American citizen, because the faces on the news are lives that were wasted on an illegal and immoral war that was sold to us, in part, by the very media that was voicing the 30 second tributes.
Where was that mainstream media when the Bush Administration took our military resources from Afghanistan and directed them into the death pit that is Iraq? How come this same media continues to ignore the outcries from U.S. soldiers back from Iraq to four-star generals who criticize the plan for "winning" the war to the families who have to deal with the burden of non-stop deployment and the daily threat of a pending coffin. I know the mainstream media doesn't give much of a damn about the anti-war movement, because the same company that owns the news probably owns a share of another company that manufactures the weapons, but to watch tribute after tribute from the very source that could have gone after the failed policy from the beginning left me with such a feeling of disgust.
As long as this immoral war continues we are disrespecting our servicemen and women. Our government is failing to give them proper leaves, much needed health care, adequate support for their families, and we are all part of this disrespect. Many leaders say that there can be victory in Iraq, but they fail to look at the long history of that region. It is tribal, it is sectarian, and it is occupied by a group of people whose core belief system links death and glory.
If we truly want to honor our military on Memorial Day, then I hope we get it right in 2009 by shaking their hands on U.S. soil when they are all at home where they should be.
1 comment:
same over here babe. Hundreds of Brits blown to hell on an illegal war. Bliar (apt spelling error) insisted Saddam had 'weapons of mass destruction' that could reach Europe. He didn't. It was a con and a lie. All our service people are dying for a con and a lie. Not to mention the oil over there eh?
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