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YAIWR (yet another anti-war rant)
The Colorado Channel 9 news is calling their coverage of the 'war' with Iraq "Operation Iraqi Freedom". They even put a special banner for it on their website. Some young graphic artist got paid ten bucks an hour to make that banner. What was he/she thinking at the time, I wonder?
There are young boys and girls who grew up in Colorado, who joined the military and are now camped out in the desert blasting people apart. I wonder what they think of it all?
No, seriously, I'd really like to know, down on the personal level, what these kids think of it. What it means to them, as a job, as a task they do. Do they think of their parents, back home? When they look through the scope of their rifle at the manic face of some desert rat, do they say, "This one's for you, Mom?" just when they squeeze out the round?
If they're going to do that, if they're going to put themselves in immediate danger, they deserve to do it for a real reason. Not for this. Not for a handful of blurry COMSATs, some jingoism, and the pompous despot of a shattered desert country. If they're going to come home with any chance of feeling good about themselves, they need real reasons to go.
The massive economic machine of the military is clamoring for a reason to exist. They can't catch terrorists with their big, clumsy, obsolete hands so they're finding other ways to justify themselves.
Pardon my language, but this just does not make any fucking sense. No more than the invasion, and subsequent abandonment, of Afghanistan did. If we spent one hundredth of the money we spent heaving bombs into rocky hillsides, on rebuilding New York, we'd have our twin towers back right now.
I'm ashamed that my federal tax dollars are paying for this. I'm paying for this. Hell, if I didn't pay for this, I'd be jailed for tax evasion. I feel like there is blood on my hands.
You can't trade dead people for live ones. I want all my brothers-in-law back home and safe.
There are young boys and girls who grew up in Colorado, who joined the military and are now camped out in the desert blasting people apart. I wonder what they think of it all?
No, seriously, I'd really like to know, down on the personal level, what these kids think of it. What it means to them, as a job, as a task they do. Do they think of their parents, back home? When they look through the scope of their rifle at the manic face of some desert rat, do they say, "This one's for you, Mom?" just when they squeeze out the round?
If they're going to do that, if they're going to put themselves in immediate danger, they deserve to do it for a real reason. Not for this. Not for a handful of blurry COMSATs, some jingoism, and the pompous despot of a shattered desert country. If they're going to come home with any chance of feeling good about themselves, they need real reasons to go.
The massive economic machine of the military is clamoring for a reason to exist. They can't catch terrorists with their big, clumsy, obsolete hands so they're finding other ways to justify themselves.
Pardon my language, but this just does not make any fucking sense. No more than the invasion, and subsequent abandonment, of Afghanistan did. If we spent one hundredth of the money we spent heaving bombs into rocky hillsides, on rebuilding New York, we'd have our twin towers back right now.
I'm ashamed that my federal tax dollars are paying for this. I'm paying for this. Hell, if I didn't pay for this, I'd be jailed for tax evasion. I feel like there is blood on my hands.
You can't trade dead people for live ones. I want all my brothers-in-law back home and safe.
Re: I'm no soldier, but
Re: Afghanistan. A quote : " Much of the country remains under the sway of warlords and is split by ethnic differences that have fuelled fights for decades and raised doubts about the viability of a national army in a country where tribal loyalty far outweighs loyalty to the state. "
That about sums it up. How is the U.S. going to enforce 'democracy' in such a diverse place? Kill all the warlords? And their sons? Re-educate an entire generation, against the ideas of their ancestors, by establishing Don't Serve A Warlord University?
What's the upper limit, of citizens killed, before the U.S. is no longer freeing a people -- but is just freeing land? From the people who used to live on it?
As for the ousting of "a man" in Iraq, how can such a simplistic approach render any real results? Kill the dictator, and all you've made is a dictator-shaped hole. If you have to march your ass over a hundred miles to get there, taking prisoners along the way, have you really done a net positive for the image of your nation, in the eyes of revenge-minded terrorists?
Osama Bin Laden financed his favorite anti-American organisation with his Saudi parents' money. Even with this being the case, I'm glad Bush didn't decide to topple the Royal House of Saud, and bring "democracy" to their country too.