During this Memorial Day period, I cannot help but turn to the words (quoted in the epigram) spoken by Former First Lady, Barbara Bush. Did she really mean to show such callous disregard for American (also Coalition) and Iraqi soldiers and civilians and, indeed, for all human beings in whatever land in which they reside and suffer the tragedy of war?
I have been mystified by her words ever since I read them as quoted widely in various news sources and on the Internet. It is hard to square her words with her usual gray-haired "grandmotherly" demeanor.
Frankly, I find if hard to believe she actually spoke those words, and must wonder if she would have thought "body bags" irrelevant if granddaughters, Barbara and Jenna, or other members of her own clan were serving with the armed forces in Iraq.
Surely, someone as seemingly good-natured and intelligent as the former First Lady did not mean for these words to come across with such heartless disregard for sacrifice, suffering and death.
What is a person to say when confronted with a man or woman whose legs were blown off or the parents of a dead soldier: "Sorry, I cannot turn my beautiful mind on you, as your suffering is irrelevant."
In my own version of the modern political "spin game," I refuse to take Barbara Bush seriously. I prefer to believe that she was engaging in just a bit of irony.
Surely, as a mother and a church-going matriarch, she would want to turn that "beautiful mind" to thoughts of the dead Coalition men and women like those listed at the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. Over 800 Coalition soldiers have been killed and many thousands wounded (as of 5/28/2004).
Of course, we cannot be sure of the Iraqi casualty and death figures because as General Tommy Franks, former Commander of U.S. Central Command and honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), said, "We don't do body counts." Certainly, the Iraqi deaths since the military invasion are close to 10,000--at a minimum--according to the totals at Iraq Body Count.
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