Forever Nineteen

While we rant about Social Security, Jeff Gannon and the secret Bush tapes, the war in Iraq rages on.  At least three more GIs were killed today.

I found this poignant letter on Bring Them Home Now.  It's a good reminder of the personal cost of war.

February 12, 2005

Today is the one-year anniversary of my nephew's death in Baghdad. Next month he would have turned 21. He would have been anticipating his first legal drink as a young man. He might have had a girlfriend, a job, even a career start, full of possibilities and life. Instead, he is one year in the grave, forever 19.

We stood over him in the rain today; I thinking about the year. How it seems so long and so short at the same time. How much seems to have happened and yet how little has actually changed. He is joined by fresh graves at Willamette National Cemetery. Old vets and young victims. We've had elections. Iraq's had elections. And yet the war rages on. The killing and dying goes on even more fiercely. Same old lies, just more proof. Same old liars, just new titles.

It's so quiet there and my inner screams seem very out of place. I feel out of place a lot these days. Like everyone around me is operating on a different plane of reality. People go about, business as usual, with their "Support Our Troops" magnets on their gas-guzzling SUVs. I want to stop them and show them William's photo. I want to tell them what he gave up and I want to ask them, "WHY?" I want to ask them what they've given up. America is not "getting" it. Do they know that this boy and thousands like him have lost their lives, their health, their sanity? How many more new graves will be here next year? And the year after that?

Annette Pritchard
Aunt of PFC William Ramirez, KIA 2/12/04

posted 20 february 2005

I remember William's
death.  I used to take note of the names of those lost in Iraq. I don't' any longer.  There are too many. But I still remember William.  He was from my state and just a kid, really.  His life ahead of him, or at least, it should have been.  

William Ramirez grew up in southeast Portland and dreamed of becoming an architect, his father said. He attended David Douglas and Franklin high schools.

His mother, Maria Buscho, described him as shy and creative. He loved to draw, he liked break-dancing, basketball and listening to Dixie Chicks? music.

He always wanted to do something good with his life, Buscho said.

Please remember William.  Please remember your neighbors' sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and lovers who have died in this war.  Also remember it was waged by those who care little about these loses except for it's impact politically.  We care, though.

•  Diary Iraq

  I'm not crazy about doing diaries, especially because they disappear in the wink of an eye, but sometimes the Iraq War gets lost in the craziness that is Bush world, and I think it needs more play around here.  So many other issues to deal with, I know.  

  Paper Tigress used to do a great job with her Iraq timelines and kept the issue more on the front burner.  Since she left, I see fewer diaries on Iraq.  In part, I'm sure, because each day is more of the same.  Three deaths here, four deaths there.  On a good day, perhaps only one death of an American GI.  Iraqis, yes, Iraqi deaths too.  It tends to blend together.  Also I think most of us, at this point, don't have a solution to the debacle that is Iraq.  Of course, I was always in the "cut and run" school, myself.

  I suppose I don't expect any comments.  What is there to say at this point?  Of course if you have something to say, don't hold back.

  by pacifica on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:02:39 PM PDT

  •  Yes, always good to keep ...

    ...remembering the toll:

    Iraqi Civilian Casualties: Unknown, but at least 100,000+

    Iraqi Military Casualties: Unknown, at least many thousands

    Coalition Deaths: 1654

    American Military Deaths: 1484

    WMDs Found: 1 sarin gas canister (June 2004)

    by Meteor Blades on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:10:03 PM PDT

    •  But the cocktail napkin doodles!

      And the ancient centrifuge buried in the rose garden!

      <shakes head>  Urgh, too late to get this depressed.  I'm sleeping.

      by Raybin on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:27:01 PM PDT

•  thank you...

  those of us with husbands and loved ones in Iraq do very much appreciate that kossacks recognize and remember those who are still toiling and dying over there.

  It breaks my heart to read that letter but it is so important to bear witness to the grief. Too many Americans turn away from the stories of the dead and those they've left behind because it is too fucking painful to see what how our country has betrayed its young and brave.

  by pacific city on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:22:03 PM PDT

  •  PC

    How long has your husband been there?

    by pacifica on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:38:19 PM PDT

    •  he's been there since September 2004...

      and is scheduled to come home sometime in June. Although they just pushed the return date back another two weeks so I'm not holding my breath until he is on the plane back to the States.

      by pacific city on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:40:50 PM PDT

      •  You two are in my thoughts

        I hope you hear from him frequently.

        by pacifica on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:45:06 PM PDT

        •  thank you..

          I hear from him a couple times a week or so by phone or email. The saddest thing is that when soldiers are killed over there, they shut down all the cell towers and internet connections until they can notify the families. So when I don't hear from him, I know that they've probably lost some troops in his area.

          by pacific city on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 08:46:34 AM PDT

•  While we are at it

  Let's spare a prayer or two for the 100+ Iraqis killed over the same weekend.

  by Kenyan on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:56:29 PM PDT

  •  Yes

    And the 100,000 plus Iraqis killed over the last two years.

    I didn't mean to minimize their suffering.

    by pacifica on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:04:40 AM PDT

    •  You did not!

      I was just adding them onto the list of people we have reason to grieve for.

      It's an unholy mess and let us pray for all the innocent dead. Let's also pray that sanity returns and our boys and girls come home soon.
      

      by Kenyan on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:25:28 AM PDT

      •  Amen!

        During Vietnam, I volunteered as a "hostess" for the YMCA Servicemen's Center in Indianapolis.  (Think "USO" --same type of thing).  We served coffee and cookies, had paper to write home, magazines, records, a tv to watch....dances on Saturday night...tickets to museums, ball games, etc.  Mostly we talked to the guys.  Most were in training--some would go to Germany, more to 'Nam.  I think of all the young men I talked with, heard about their folks and their girlfriends back home, what they hoped to do when they got back--and I wonder, often, how many of them are names on the Wall now.  No way to tell.  Most of them were draftees, and definitely didn't want to go where they were going.  But there's the old army saying:  "We can't make you fight, son.  But we can take you where they're shooting at you, and give you a gun, and you decide for yourself whether you want to fight or not."

        So we have young people on this side who signed up to defend their country....put in a position where others are shooting at them.  We've got people there being shot at who are defending their own land.  And we have people in the middle, on both sides, who keep the bullets and bombs going off because they get the power and the money.

        Lord, open eyes, open ears, open hearts.  Please.

        by revsue on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 02:15:06 AM PDT