February
2007
Common Ground
I know my last column was antagonistic. I don’t want anyone to think I question anyone else’s patriotism. With the exception being those in government and elsewhere who are truly not looking out for the best interests of our nation but are only looking out for their own financial interests.
I believe the majority of the people in this country only want to do what is right. They want our troops home and they want them home as soon as possible without making us or them any less safe. It is a shared love for our country that causes such passion coming from both sides on this war issue. The debate is over how to accomplish it and the definition of accomplishment for each side.
I get passionate because every time someone dies a mother is given notification. A father loses the joy of seeing how his years of playing catch or fishing with idle conversation made his son or daughter into a great parent or even greater person. A child grows up only knowing that his father or mother loved their country and that’s why they never get to know anything else about them. Never get to feel the comfort only a parent can bring. As a parent I think of what it must be like to receive a letter, or phone call, or telegram telling me my son or daughter died while _____ (you fill in the blank). I think my heart would stop that second. Of course I’m lucky enough that it hasn’t happened. But just thinking about it brings strong emotions from near everyone.
Each of the individual lives lost has a story and a real family connected to it. They are not just one more of a few thousand.
It’s all about empathy.
Jack
Jack
Jack:
You’re right about empathy. Though myself and my family are not soldiers, I sat on edge during Gulf War I because several of my friends went to the combat zone to do their jobs. That being said, a nation cannot base its policy on emotion, not even empathy.
Like some on the right, I get sick of the rhetoric of the left that constantly claims to support the troops and then engages in dangerous and self-serving no-confidence resolutions like the one currently under debate. Don’t claim that pathetic gestures like that are in the best interest of the troops and the nation. Don’t tell me that those law-makers are brave; they want to feel good and look good. The truth is that when they look at the situation with logic and reason, they realize the necessity of fighting on. I get sick of the long parade of politicians who told us in 98 and 2000 how Saddam was such a threat but now bail on the cheap when the going gets a little tough.
And while there is so much outrage at the Bush administration, I don’t honestly think we can look at the statements of Clinton and Gore before 911 and assume that we wouldn’t have gone to war with Iraq afterward. But where is the outrage at our enemies in Iraq who maim and torture women and students and govt workers daily? Why are we so quick to ignore the real evil of the Islamic radicals who flock to Iraq?
So now as those same young soldiers are gearing up to fight in Bagdad, and those waiting mothers at home are tensing up to wait, how about some old-fashioned patriotism where the critics shut up until they are actually prepared to do something or offer a real alternative plan.
And as far as filling in the blank goes, they are dying so that I can run my mouth and sleep safely at night.