Photo: GETTY IMAGES PHOTO/CHRIS HONDROS
I really don't know what to do. I do however know what to say.
The election has come and gone. We are no safer, no better off, and Bush is handing out medals and cabinet posts to the folks who have helped keep us in a country half a world away to PROTECT US FROM NOTHING. NO WMDs, kids. Not one. I don't know about you but I'm done with all of it.
I am tired of seeing images that will haunt me till the end of my days. The picture above is of two children who's parents we killed because of a roadside misunderstanding. As a parent I just can't fathom what hell those kids will go through in the future. It doesn't surprise me to hear that folks in foreign lands don't like us when they see such pictures. Self-loathing aside, this is not about making us beloved worldwide it's about doing the right thing - picking up and heading home. For that matter, pick up and head to Thailand or Sri Lanka or any country that could use strong men to rebuild a country that doesn't involve guns, missiles or embargos on pictures of caskets.
I have written my congress persons. I have called my Senator. I have given money to campaigns. I have used TrueMajority, MoveOn and just about any other grassroots call-to-action sites. It's not working.
In a recent conversation with my Dad, a Vietnam War vet, I asked him what he thought about the war back when he was serving? Did he think they were doing the right thing? He told me that he read the 'Stars and Stripes' paper and talked primarily to other servicemen. In Honolulu where he was stationed when he wasn't trawling the Pacific, the local news did little to report on protests and the mood on the mainland.
I hope that's not true today. I hope our soldiers know that we support them, and in supporting them - want them to know what is really going on back at home. That there are growing problems, that the administration is taking every opportunity to divert focus to invented problems like Syria and Iran. I hope they know what is going on in all areas of Iraq. Many soldiers and reporters are keeping blogs and staying in contact via email. Perhaps they should let their superiors know how THEY feel. If you know a soldier, I hope you tell them the truth. That their lives are too valuable to be wasted in this war and that we would rather have them home.
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