Iraq don't want their deaths to have "Been in vain."
The families of the thousands of GIs who have returned from the Iraqi conflict with wounds that will last a lifetime don'want their loved ones suffering to have been a waste. A full one third of the GIs returning from Iraq are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Who knows how many will return with ailments and disorders caused by exposure to depleted uranium munitions?
How do we give meaning to these noble victims who did their patriotic duty? How do we honor their courage and sacrifice when we are talking about withdrawing?
The right wing extremist politicians USE the dead soldiers. They use the patriotic GIs doing their jobs in Iraq to sell their politics. The extremist Republicans totally politicize the GIs by using them to justify all their policies. Then, when patriotic, centrist Americans question the continuation of a war that was started based on fraud, distortion and lies of omission, they attack them for politicizing the war and using the soldiers.
They are the violators of the trust the brave GIs who put in them. And now, having seen enough proof that the war was a fraud, their continued determined refusal to extricate the GIs, and their failure to pursue punishment for those who deceived makes them accessories to the crime.
But that still leaves the families of the dead and the wounded and traumatized needing some way to make sense of their losses.
I believe the answer is simple. Rather than eliminating one corrupt, torturing, war criminal tyrant, they will get rid of two. Their suffering will have led to the removal from power of two monsters-- Saddam Hussein and George Bush. Rather than fighting in a distant war to protect a questionable idea that is plagued with doubts that the real issue was oil, they will, at home, help rescue the nations from a corrupt team of deceivers who willingly defrauded the American people and plunged us into a horrible conflict that has increased the level of terrorism in the world and weakened our nation among other nations.
By supporting the kind of tactical pullout described by John Murtha, and by nailing down the facts that prove Bush and his team lied and deceived the nation into war, we will give meaning and victory to the dead and injured. Finding the truth, rescuing democracy at home-- these are noble accomplishments.
It takes true courage to face up to mistakes, to face up to the truth that we have been betrayed by someone we respected and trusted. It takes greater courage to confront that abusive betrayer. It doesn't take away the pain, but it helps with the healing process.
It is time for the American Military to start speaking up, for veterans to have the courage to rescue the active duty GIs and for military families to express outrage over the failure to respond to the disclosures and revelations that now make it clear the war was started based on fraud and lies by omission. It is time they demand that the active duty GIs and reservists be taken out of Iraq, out of harms way very quickly. It is time they tell the right wing cowards who have been using the live and dead GIs to shut the hell up and start doing their jobs-- protecting the GIS and making sure they are where they should be for good reasons. It is time to withdraw from Iraq as the only honest means of giving meaning to the deaths and injuries of our GIs.
