I'm not the kind of guy who cries very often. Maybe once every couple years I'll see a sad scene in a movie and cry a little bit. One time I cried when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup and they brought their paralyzed veteran Vladimir Konstantinov on the ice in a wheelchair to take a victory lap.
My wife and I had a miscarriage earlier this year and you can bet I cried about that.
But never in a million years did I expect myself to cry while watching C-SPAN on a Friday night. Crying like a baby, no less.
Let me tell you what got to me as I watched this debate on the war. See, I freely admit that I'm not one of the people who is against war in all cases, although I have great respect for those people. I do think there are wars that have to be fought. And I can't tell you how much respect I have for the kids who risk their lives in the service of this great country. And yes, no matter how much the politicians try to screw it up, it's a great country!
I think Congressman Murtha is such a hero for his service to the country and for what he said this week. Learning what he must have learned from Vietnam, he came to the hard realization that what's right for this country, what's right for the soldiers, is to end this stupid misadventure in Iraq. I was so moved to tears hearing him read the letters from soldiers and from their families.
To think that a mother could lose her child in a useless war like this one, and there's nothing she can do except write a letter to some politician in Congress, where they barely have power to do anything even if they decide they care. Every life lost in Iraq, a tragedy for a family somewhere.
But I was moved by what the Republicans had to say, too, to tell you the truth. Sam Johnson, I have to respect his great service to this country and what he risked, even if he can't say one word that isn't a talking point. I still listen to what he has to say because I think he's earned the right to be listened to.
But it wasn't his talking points that moved me to tears, for sure. What got me was the oft-repeated fact that the majority of the soldiers desperately want to finish the mission. And I know it to be true. As Rep. Murtha said yesterday, "What else are they going to say?" I don't WANT to pull them out of Iraq with a feeling of disappointment that may never go away. I don't want to sell them out and leave them with the feeling that the country doesn't support them. I have plenty of veterans in my family and I don't think those are talking points. I think they are true.
But what choice do we have? We have none. Either we pull them out and brak their hearts, or we leave them there to be sitting ducks. The real crime in this whole thing is this incompetent administration who sent them to war for no good reason, who waged this war so incompetently, and insists on "staying the course" even though they have absolutely no plan to move forward. They don't know what to do, but they can't bring themselves to lose face by ending it, so they tell us we must stay as long as it takes, in other words forever.
One of these days, God willing, my wife and I will manage to have that kid. And someday if my kid has to go to war to defend this country I'll be proud of his service, or her service. But the thought of having your child sent to war for no reason, to give their life for nothing but politics, to be given no path to victory because the people that put them there are so incompetent, it breaks my heart over and over. Not my child.
What I learned through these tears is that we can never afford to elect a President like this again. Never again.