Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Last September on this blog, I wrote about the death of Devon Grella of Medina, Ohio, the 1,000th US war death in Iraq. Today the body count stands at 1,999, meaning we should receive news of the 2,000th casualty by the end of the week. Unlike last year's milestone, this one will probably pass largely unnoticed, preoccupied as we are by the World Series, Hurricane Katrina, and the multiple scandals swirling around Congress and the Administration. Not to mention Bredgelina and TomKat and Vaughniffer and whatever other insipid celebrity affair grown-up schoolgirls are obsessing about now. Marx called religion the opiate of the masses, but that was before television was invented.
So nobody much will notice when the 2,000th young man or woman is sacrificed on the altar of saving face for a bunch of ninny intellectuals who thought that saving the world would be cheap and easy if only we had the will to topple a dictator or two. We have plenty of will in this country but the will to fly off the Empire State Building doesn't make the plunge to your death any less inevitable. Iraq doesn't need the military defeat of the Forces of Evil, it needs a new social compact that protects the rights of all minorities and doesn't allow one group to oppress, exploit, or impose its religious beliefs on the others. An elected government that allows the majority to oppress the minority is little better than a dictatorship in which the minority oppresses the majority. So stay or leave, I don't believe the US is doing any good in Iraq - between our enemies and our "friends," I don't have a dog in this fight.
With one exception. My cousin is stationed in Fallujah with the Marine corps. As of this writing, there are four unidentifies casualties in Anbar province. So not only is there the possibility that the next casualty will by my cousin, but also technically I don't really know if he's even alive today. He's there because he can't stand being on the sidelines, and he thinks he's doing something good for his country. I understand how he feels, but I want him home, and I want him home now. The violence and hatred between ethnic groups in Iraq seems destined to continue for years, perhaps decades. I can't imagine what better future we hope to achieve by leaving our people in the middle of such a dispute, or how it could be worth sacrificing a few hundred more young people.
So nobody much will notice when the 2,000th young man or woman is sacrificed on the altar of saving face for a bunch of ninny intellectuals who thought that saving the world would be cheap and easy if only we had the will to topple a dictator or two. We have plenty of will in this country but the will to fly off the Empire State Building doesn't make the plunge to your death any less inevitable. Iraq doesn't need the military defeat of the Forces of Evil, it needs a new social compact that protects the rights of all minorities and doesn't allow one group to oppress, exploit, or impose its religious beliefs on the others. An elected government that allows the majority to oppress the minority is little better than a dictatorship in which the minority oppresses the majority. So stay or leave, I don't believe the US is doing any good in Iraq - between our enemies and our "friends," I don't have a dog in this fight.
With one exception. My cousin is stationed in Fallujah with the Marine corps. As of this writing, there are four unidentifies casualties in Anbar province. So not only is there the possibility that the next casualty will by my cousin, but also technically I don't really know if he's even alive today. He's there because he can't stand being on the sidelines, and he thinks he's doing something good for his country. I understand how he feels, but I want him home, and I want him home now. The violence and hatred between ethnic groups in Iraq seems destined to continue for years, perhaps decades. I can't imagine what better future we hope to achieve by leaving our people in the middle of such a dispute, or how it could be worth sacrificing a few hundred more young people.
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