I got a late afternoon call to do a segment on Hardball tonight with Chris Matthews. As the brother of a fallen soldier, I speak on behalf of Military Families Speak Out, and when the news cycles are right, when it fits the narrative, we get the make-up and the microphone--for a few fleeting moments, anyway.
The topic was Petraeus, and his admission that he doesn't know if the Iraq war has made us safer. That's not quite sincere, because we know the war has made us less safe. Still, the fact that something close to the truth was spoken on the Senate floor, to a Republican questioner, no less, is the sound bite Matthews ran with.
I wanted to talk about the humanity of this war. My brother died in Iraq. He died looking for WMD. He died because this country capitulated to fear, because the people in power were hell bent on an ideology, because the principles of reason were tossed for negligent policy.
The General says give us time. Where others see 12 months, or 18 months, I see bodies. I see 900, 1300 dead troops. I see tens of thousands injured, wives who will see their husbands again—someday—but never know them again. A million firsts will pass without witness. A baby's first steps, a first word, a first day of school. The consequences extend beyond this generation. The consequences are right there, in my nephew's eyes, who has the unmistakable gaze of his father.
I wanted to say all of this, but the best I could do was try to answer the questions. Matthews asked me, "What do your pro-war friends say?" That's a contradiction of terms. The war isn't the Eagles vs. the Cowboys. It's life and death (and I don't have any friends that are Cowboys fans either, for that matter).
I saw the tape. I looked angry. We should all be angry. This is happening again. Evidence is being plucked, the sales pitch is on, and the people we trusted with our votes to do something about it are going to lay down, again, out of fear for their political lives. Meanwhile, real lives hang in the balance, lives that will be no more by the time our politicians decide to act.
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UPDATE: I finally got the video uploaded.