In the last week twenty-four American soldiers were killed in Iraq. I have been frustrated to no end by the Bush administration's persistant demand to treat the Iraq war (a) as the war to end all wars and (b) not a war worthy of sacrifice, other than civil liberties, for any American who doesn't wear a uniform. It's the world's most prominent example of wanting to eat your cake and have it too. It's simply absurd.
And yet the absurdity is born out by the realities of the war.
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As a preemptive war of choice against a hopelessly overmatched enemy, there was little need for the US to even do warm-up stretches before our military honorably dispatched the Saddam's government. Only when the Bush administration failed to institute an inkling of a post-war reconstruction strategy did the Iraq war really begin. Dissolving the Iraqi army, failing to protect Iraq's bureaucratic departments from looting, and allowing the nation's infrastructure to crumble while Iraqi's were tortured and shamed spawned a widespread insurgency. This insurgency, Bush's clear legacy from the Iraq war, is what has claimed over 2,200 American lives, tens of thousands of injuries, and killed an unknowable number of Iraqi civilians (though it's at minimum tenfold more than any harm perpetrated against American civilians).
In the last week twenty-four American soldiers -- twenty-four of my peers, my fellow citizens, people who put there lives on the line in honor of their brothers in arms and our Constitution -- were killed. This after election after meaningless election. After dozens of slogan filled speeches by the President and his surrogates proclaiming historic progress. After Halliburton, KBR, and America's oil companies have "earned" billions to rebuild a country we destroyed. After hatred and fraud have united historic enemies in Iraq against us and the puppets we're putting in place there.
I live in an apartment building that houses probably between forty and fifty people. If half of us died or were killed in a single week, we'd have magazine articles, TV news casts, and probably a few craptastic made-for-tv movies. It would be a tragedy beyond anyone's imagination; the sadness and horror would swell around water coolers, in chat rooms, at bars, and even in a few political blogs. Hell, thirteen miners were trapped last week, twelve died, and memorials still fill the papers. Their tragedy is unmitigated, their lives clearly destroyed when full of meaning and love. It is sad, shocking, regrettable, and not surprisingly met by recriminations as to who could be held responsible for such a negilegent loss. Deservedly so.
This week twenty-four American soldiers were killed in Iraq. I cannot imagine a mass tragedy receiving less attention. Yes people die in a war, but these are our peers, our fellow Americans and they deserve as much respect, if not more, than any mine collapse, car accident, terrorist attack, spontaneous combustion, or heart attack while fucking your secretary. Yes people die in a war, but these are our children, our brothers, our fathers and their sacrifice is met by silence and bullshit by the President, his press secretary, and every Republican talking head hack that wouldn't serve one day in Vietnam or any other war of bullets when they had their chance.
I often find myself engulfed in a seething rage, directed at our president, his advisors, their unconsidered policies, and the wasted results that come in the wake of all three. Right now I am literally grinding my teeth in anger while crying at the banality of the deaths of these American heros. The deaths of twenty-four American soldiers, three years after our president declared major combat operations to be over, is banal and it's all Bush's fault. Had he valued the lives of those in our military, we would not be where we are today. Had he given them adequate armor, we would not be where we are today. Had he been honest with the American people about why we were going to war, we wouldn not be where we are today.
Two weeks ago I met a fifty year old man who'd just returned from a one-year tour of duty in Iraq. His unit, in down armor Humvees, lost nine men. Three died in the top gun turret position -- IEDs flipped the vehicles, crushing their gunners. After losing three men this way, my friend's reserve unit raided some parachute supplies from an airborne unit and rigged a harness system for their top-side gunners to allow them a way out if the vehicle were to flip. The driver would simply pull a ripcord that cut the gunner from his harness -- a feature previously unavailable to them. Ingenuity and necessity has had to replace preparedness because Bush hasn't provided the troops with what they need to fight safely. That's not to mention the sandbags and scrap metal. (Incidentally, Army designers and engineers have sinced looked into universalizing his units ripcord safety system).
How can our president be described as anything other than incompetent and criminally negligent? How can twenty-four dead Americans become banal in an era when America fights wars practically casualty? It's simple: we weren't prepared to this fight because the president wasn't prepared. 2,208 Americans are dead and I am beyond angry. I'm tired of the daily sad tragedy that is our occupation of Iraq and I have a message for the president:
Bring the troops home and resign.