MrSpkr's random thoughts . . .

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

More casualties in Iraq today.

This morning on the radio, there were two sound bites that profoundly disturbed me. First was an interview with the widow of helicopter pilot shot down Saturday. Of course she was distraught -- who wouldn't be in those circumstances? I found it abhorrent, however, that the media shoved microphones in her face.

The second was with the uncle of another soldier killed Saturday. His comment was that "we ought to bring all those boys back home where they belong."

I talked to Amy about it this morning, albeit briefly. Her comment was that I ought to be more compassionate.

Sorry, but it bothers me that the news media focuses on the minimal losses we have taken in this war instead of on the resounding successes. Yes, we are losing soldiers. No, we are not losing many, and historically, our losses are not much higher than they would have been in any similarly sized group of soldiers on training exercises at any given time.

What have we gotten for our efforts? We have deposed a brutal thug; we are beginning to construct a free and open Iraqi democracy, and we are loosening our reliance upon the Saudis.

Does all of this make any of the soldier's deaths acceptable? Well, no, not necessarily acceptable, but certainly palatable. The great tragedy will be if we pull out of Iraq before the job is finished and allow another thug to brutalize the Iraqi people (and further reinforce the image that the way to get America to do what you want is to grind out low level casualties).

If that happens, the soldiers will have died for nothing.

That is unacceptable.

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 08:03

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