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The Personal Cost
The Coffeespy ponders the big issue:
While I am definitely a supporter of what we are doing in Iraq, and would have been even without the arguments of WMD and terrorist links, it’s important for those defending the actions over there to remember the human cost. We pay lip service to it all the time. But I think it’s our personal responsibility to have personal knowledge of the price we have paid and are still paying by being there, no matter the justification you use for being there.
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4 Responses to “The Personal Cost”
The only danger I see in weighing the personal cost, is neglecting what the future, equally personal costs might be. Are 10 lives now worth maybe 1, 5, 10, 15 lives in the future?
There seems to be a disconnect between our debates about Iraq policy and the horrific price the military and their families pay for war.
‘Thank you for your service’ has become as mundane as ‘have a nice day’.
Military communities live a rather segregated life from which the rest of us are more or less estranged.
This is a disjointed way for a nation to face a war.
There are not even war bond drives, through whcih the nation could take part.
I get the feeling we were not meant to notice that a war was being fought.
On this I agree with you. At the time of the Afghanistan invasion, Bush announced the program whereby school kids could donate to help the Afghan kids. I remember thinking at the time that it was largely a PR effort, but still an important one, and I expected to hear a lot more of this. Instead, it fizzled out and nothing else came of it. I’ve often thought what a difference could be made, materially and psychologically, if for example, a program was announced for US communities to “adopt” a city or district in Iraq or Afghanistan. Fundraising efforts could be made directly from one sister city to the other for relief and reconstruction efforts.
/snarkon/I recall that we were told to go shopping. /snarkoff/
Besides, our Decider-in-Chief seems to think that folks having to watch the images of the war on TV (with US media tending to sanitize much of the carnage vs. world press) are sacrificing enough since they’re sacrificing their peace of mind. Perhaps he figures folks won’t mind losing Iraq so much if there’s no real national/personal stake for the majority of the people? In all seriousness, with the Bush administration talking out of both sides of their collective mouth with a “war of civilizations” on one side and a “nothing to see here, move along & shop” on the other makes the job the administration does look all the more half-assed and the true sacrifice of our military & their families all the more for naught. I’m grateful every day that I have no personal stake in this shambles of a war and pray they never mobilize a draft where my husband would probably be young enough to be called up if he were a US citizen.