Iraq War conversation with 17 year old niece
Mon Jul 07, 2008 at 12:00:36 PM PDT
I have watched over the weekend as pundit after pundit has discussed Senator Obama and his "new" position on the Iraq War. And what's sad is that it is Beltway Punditland as usual.
The McCain campaign is pushing that "the Surge is working, the Surge is working !!!" Never mind that the reason for the Surge, political reconciliation, is unaccomplished on the major issues or that the Iraqi troops ain't standing up so that we can stand down. Never mind that the troops used to Surge have to be reduced, that Al-Sadr has ended the ceasefire and plans to create a whole new militia for killing U.S. troops or that the money spent to buy off these homegrown Iraqi freedom fighters cannot last.
Never mind MSM that a whole generation of Americans are being subjected to this Bizzaro world, that the fourth estate is the Kinkos of the Republican Party, cranking out copies, adding color, enlarging and collating. So I asked my niece to imagine this...
Imagine when you were twelve years old, that war came to your city, to Nashville, TN. Before the war, you had a refrigerator with food and drinks in it, your mother left and went to the market whenever necessary and your father went to work. Your two brothers went to school, the younger would come and teach you stuff. You always had electricity, potable and running water, working sewage, trash pickup, police and fire department.
And then the war came. And the lights went out. The bombs rained down and the family hunkered and waited. The bombs stopped and word on the street was that the reign of the Hussein dictatorship was over. You had heard the men in your family discuss the terrible things. It was all you knew, the dictatorship but now it was over.
Three months passed but the lights didn't return. In 120 degree weather, the garbage piled high, the sewage ran and dead bodies were slow to be removed from the streets. The unbearable stench of filth and death became regular. And the killings began.
It was supposed to be better but it didn't get better. People that looked like you started killing your family members and people that didn't look like you also killed your family. Imagine, Tamika [name changed], that they killed your Uncle Darryl and your godbrother Jerald and your biological father and his brother too. And they killed cousin Junior, and they killed your best friend's half brother and they killed your baby cousin, Jevadis, by accident. And no one has heard from Uncle Ronnie, Uncle George or Uncle Rick.
You fled the city of Baghdad and five years later, there is no school for you to attend. There is no economy so all you know is poverty. Your extended family has taken you in because of all the men in your family are dead. And things still aren't back to normal. Violence is down but you still know of friends who are still losing loved ones. And the talk is of an agreement between the Prime Minister and President George Bush on how long the troops will stay and whether they are subject to the laws of our land. And you've heard them talk about contractors that kill without penalty. And Abu Ghraib. And you've heard them talk about men that disappear.
Now Tamika, you are seventeen years old. Your senior year in high school is coming up and your granddad went and bought you a G6. Already planning your prom and looking forward to Senior Skip Day and looking at the freshmeat remembering when you were green.
But take all that away. Take the last five years away of watching it here on CNN. The arrogance of Donald Rumsfeld insinuating we were all Chicken Littles. The monotone pronouncements of Vice President and the "last throes." "Bring 'em on."
Instead, your name is Shawbo and most of your male relatives are dead or missing. Five years later, it is nothing like the way it used to be. Do you understand that a generation of Iraqis and Middle Easterners have been poisoned by this catastrophic groupthink? Do you understand why Uncle Darryl is so angry that the bobbleheads would dare conflate Senator McCain to Senator Obama?
"Of course," she replied. "I would never get over that."
A couple of minutes later she came downstairs, still reflecting on everything I had said.
"Oh yeah, Uncle Darryl? Have you heard the 'Hello Infidel' ringtone?"
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