Quote:
Originally Posted by Gozer
Unless there's overtime. Then what, you leave with the game tied?
I was 100% against this war because I had the foresight to see an ugly occupation with resentment everywhere. It wasn't going to be two armies marching toward each other until one lays down their guns and surrenders. It's an ugly bloodbath that needs years of selfless sacrifice from Americans to win.
The fact that America didn't see that coming is their own fault.
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I guess I think that's a little cold-blooded. I've taught Iraq war vets who've written in informal writings about their experiences, and I've had students who've lost friends in this war. Iowa has a lot of enlisted people--and let me tell you--these kids didn't choose anything. All they did was answer the call of their country and lay down their lives for it. Do we really need to continue the bloodbath just because GW Bush is an idiot?
I just can't shrug my shoulders and say "well, I guess that's tough!" I've seen too much of the human cost of this--and what I've seen is the tiniest fraction of the total package. It would be one thing if the chickenhawks behind this war were laying down their own lives, or if the American people were themselves asked to sacrifice anything for this war. But the burden is being born by young, promising men and women, some of whom are having their lives cut short in the process. They leave behind grieving families, children, mothers, wives, husbands, who all have to find some way of making sense of their deaths. "George Bush made a mistake" just isn't good enough. Either there's a rationale for why these kids are dying or it just isn't worth it. It's not about victory and defeat--it's about the balance between objectives and the cost to achieve them--and right now the cost is too high.