Bush Sending More Troops to Iraq
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Posted by Maryan Pelland Jan 10, 2007 |
As a grandmother and a military mom, I am terrified of Mr. Bush's plan for Iraq. The speech comes tonight but word is out the man plans to embed more of our troops into Iraqi units. Now keep in mind, these Iraqi units are composed of men who run away when the going get tough. Many of them switch sides when the other side has more to offer. Their people have been fighting unending wars for a thousand years. It's what they do. They don't want to win or bring change or revel in democracy. They want to fight. Sometimes. Other times, they want to expound on why they fight.
And our young men and women are dying by the thousands right now for a very nebulous set of reasons that change with the wind out of Washington. Now more will be blown over there and blown up.
How many grandparents do you know who have lost grandkids or are grieving over the maiming or crippling of grandkids? How many parents have lost their child - or part of their child, or more than one? Thousands. I know. I'm a military mom with multiple kids in service. I know first-hand what it's like to have real people you know and love deployed to the desert with substandard equipment, pathetic training, and not much truth about what they're doing and where they're going.
It's not a question of do we respect, value and feel gratitude to our military people and military families. It's an issue of, as one senator said this morning, knowing the idea of invading Iraq to spread democracy through the world is a cruel joke.
We are not winning anything, we aren't spreading anything but a very thick layer of political BS, hoping to save face for some powers that be.
The only difference between this situation and Viet Nam is this is an all volunteer military. No one, so far, is being drafted. So, disgruntled, but not motivated, people are talking about how unhappy the situation is. Talking too quietly. Do some reading - you may find something to be very frightened of. The idea of drafting people is not a smoky dream. We are running out of human resources. Where will these new thousands of soldiers come from? Redeploy the ones who came home? Men and women struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder?
No matter where those troops come from, families will change and suffer as Mr. Bush pushes on.
I know what it feels like to wait every single day - 392 days, to be precise, for the doorbell to ring and someone to tell you your family is now and forever smaller. I lucked out. The doorbell did not ring and my soldier is back. My sailors are, for the moment, safe.
But my soldier has injuries that weren't visible on the battlefield.
Those kids come home (and they are kids) to find little help from the military, government or VA. They can't find jobs. Some can't hold jobs if they find them because loud noises send them diving for cover. They dream of kids blown up in front of their eyes and of their friends being burned to death before them. Their lives are crashing down and their families disintegrating.
Now, more will go and some will return - to find even less help in a system bogged down with too many people needing help and not enough motivation to provide help. And more will die.
It might be time to resurrect the strength and principals baby boomers had in another war in another place and talk very loudly to the people we sent to Washington.
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