A highschool friend of mine is currently serving in the military in Iraq. He had some writings to share and asked that I post them.
I finally have a couple of those blog posts I was talking about. I pulled no punches, hopefully you don’t take offense. Things are going pretty well, aside from boredom. A couple of comments on the war, most of the footage on the news is years old, most of the reporters and politicians who visit never leave the green zone, weapons are coming in from Iran (they killed two of our Soldiers and took the legs from another), and the surge has the bad guys running scared and attacks are down.
Here’s one of his posts.
There is a sharp debate going on in the government and across the country on the cost of this war. The debates are full of experts talking about a losing battle, and the high cost of war. They have no idea of the cost of war and what it means to leave with the job unfinished. The American public, the government and the media have regularly spoken on how much they support the troops and how much the war is costing the nation. The nation has paid next to nothing for this conflict and honestly does not care to. Taxes have not been raised and 99% of the people in the nation do not even know anybody in the military. The highest price they pay is the occasional ugly image on the TV and they cannot even handle that. This conflict has not changed their habits or affected them on any deep level and will not despite their claims. They have not given years of their lives simply because that was what was required of them. They have not spent hours in 120º weather patrolling the streets, they have not missed anniversaries, first steps, births, deaths, and holidays on the other side of the world away from everything they cherish. They have not seen their friends and comrades injured or worked to stop the bleeding as their friend slowly slips away and then had to wash the blood out of the vehicle and go back out on patrol. They have not had to walk up to the front door of a Soldier’s house and tell his wife and children that their loved one is not coming home. They have paid none of the cost of this war and yet they are the ones who cannot handle the cost and want to pull out. To pull out before the mission is accomplished is to tell all of the Soldiers and their families that their sacrifice was for nothing. If this nation can so unthinkingly tell all those who have sacrificed, that the war costs too much, then perhaps the nation we are serving is already dead.