Surge Protection
Twenty years old, he was. Not even old enough to drink. When I arrived at his house for the interview he took off his shirt almost immediately — not for anything sexual, but to show me the still-shiny tattoo he’d just got the day before: a pair of hands clasped in prayer and holding three sets of dogtags inscribed with the names of good friends of his who died over there.
He’ll probably have to return to the tattoo parlor at some point, to add more dogtags to the picture on his chest. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the President plans to not only keep troops in Iraq, but add several thousand more; a “surge.”
Criticizing Bush for the fact that our
posted by Jennifer Abel at 8:29 PM
13 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
it's just that I know enough to realize the plan was never viable in the first place.
And its clearly very un-American of you to say so.
We've got to "Stay the Course" until we have "won" (whatever that means), and continue to confuse and conflate the ill-defined "War on Terror" with the ill-advised "War on Iraq". We don't want to be fighting this war over here in the streets. After all, we could have as many as 3000 people killed, or something - instead of 3000 soldiers killed (aren't soldiers people too?).
Besides, we're doing everything we can to show just what a completely f***ed up bunch of asses we are. Heck, now el Presidente is trying hard to offend and piss off the Kurds, the last group in Iraq that still likes us.
I can hardly wait for those pictures in 2016 that show the last Marines evacuating Baghdag on the embassy rooftop scrambling into a helicopter.
btw, aren't we still waiting for the year to be over that Clinton promised to bring our troops home from Bosnia? That lie was an impeachable offence.
"(aren't soldiers people too?)"
Hell, no. Soldiers are GIs...government issue ie., Govenment Property. Don't you know that? Plenty more cannon fodder where those come from.
The idea is that it's better for the Muslims to admit a modern government than to get annihilated after the first nuclear attack on an American city.
That's the time scale of the war.
We have, in the endeavour, friends among the Iraqis. That's worth something, too.
(aren't soldiers people too?)
Barely.
- Josh
@Wild Pegasus
(aren't soldiers people too?)
Barely.
Yeah, that's something that has always disturbed me: The very people who are offering/risking the most to "protect our constitution", country, and way of life legally enjoy fewer constitutional rights than the average citizen-slacker (like me) who doesn't join the armed forces.
Actually, I was insulting the soldiers. A standing army is a dire enemy of liberty.
- Josh
[Wild Pegasus said...
Actually, I was insulting the soldiers. A standing army is a dire enemy of liberty.]
Hmm, a wild pegasus...some kind of pig with wings? or just a flying horse's ass?
The Founding Fathers were so afraid of the liberty-destroying implications of a standing army that George III's maintenance of one was one of his crimes they listed in the Declaration of Independence. Do you think they were horses' asses, too?
" Do you think they were horses' asses, too? "
No, not at all. However, they were not ones to insult and denigrate the soldiers that were serving them, either.
" Do you think they were horses' asses, too? "
No, not at all. However, they were not ones to insult and denigrate the soldiers that were serving them, either.
As a veteran who served during the cold war and never had to suffer what this fine soldier had to, I say thank you Jennifer for bringing this little bit of humanity out. Because ultimately to the soldier it is the guys to the left and right of him that he fights and sadly often has to die for. Patriotism is for politicians and parades.
The politicians make the policies and start the wars, but it is the grunts who have to do the slow painful grinding work of applying those policies or fighting the wars. Keep up the good work.
Post a Comment
<< Home