These words were uttered over the phone by Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling in what proved to be his last conversation with his father Kurt. He was speaking about his upcoming mission to establish an outpost in Wanant. With only a few days left on his 15th month tour he and 8 of his fellow soldiers were killed in a battle against over 200 militants. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan in three years.
I cannot even fathom having that type of courage. To be aware that you may be walking to certain death and to do it anyway. And he and his fellow soldiers do this everyday they are in the field. Beyond that what really gets me is the fact that his tour was almost up. That if he had just taken off a couple of days he'd probably still be with us right now. Of course he couldn't, but I do think he would have even if he had the chance. Our troops ...
are some of the most courageous human beings we have in this nation. They may have opinions about where they are asked to fight, but the structure of the military necessitates that those opinions be suppressed. They have literally entrusted their lives to our leaders and to the people. They trusted us and we have failed them. We failed them when we allowed an ego-maniacal president bent on crusade to push us into an unnecessary war. We failed them by not sending enough troops to prosecute that flawed war. We failed them when we sent them into battle without proper equipment and when we would not provide proper medical care upon their return.
And we are failing them again.
We are failing them again by continuing to wallow in the mire that is Iraq while the true enemies of America kill our soldiers who do not have the necessary resources. Iraq is the original sin and it is the continuing sin. The fact that we diverted our attention from the Taliban who actually attacked this nation to a totally unrelated conflict in Iraq is infuriating. But what is almost incomprehensible is the fact that we diverted our attention from the Taliban who abetted and gave sanctuary to those who actually committed the single worst attack on American soil. That we would allow that group to be in the position to take the lives of a single other American.
Soldiers and their deaths always bring up mixed emotions that are hard to contend with in political debate. I will let the father of Cpl. Matthew B. Phillips, another soldier who fell on that day, describe it because I think he put it best.
"We're torn between incredible pride and anger. We're having a difficult time reconciling that after 14 months, someone who served his country well and paid his dues, why would he be placed in such a perilous situation?" Phillips said. Cnn.com
Why indeed?
And that is why this election is so important. Barack Obama has made it clear that he wishes to withdraw from Iraq as expediently as safety will allow. John McCain wants their to be a US presence in Iraq for the next 100 years. John McCain claims he will provide Afghanistan with all of the necessary resources. But where are these resources going to come from in our already heavily strapped military? Beyond the current election, I'm not so sure our troops can afford to wait till January at the earliest for relief.
It is time once again to push our leaders (and I use that term loosely) in the Democratically controlled Congress (once again used loosely) to force the issue on Iraq, or at the very least push Bush to provide adequate resource to Afghanistan. I will admit I am not a master strategist who knows how to do this. If he proves as intractable as ever then impeachment is the answer. Forcing the issues of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Bush's administrations crimes are all political winners for Democrats in this election cycle. That, however, isn't the issue. War policy isn't a political tool. We are talking about the lives of our young Americans in uniform. I'm sure I will hear "we don't have the votes" or "Bush will just veto everything," but we must try.
We cannot allow our leaders to fail them again. Ever time they fail them so do we.
Edit: Updated to better reflect the nature of the relationship between Taliban and 9/11. Thank you wgard and greenies.