I'm as happy as anybody that the two female journalists were released from North Korea and were brought home to their families. Who wouldn't cheer such a happy ending to a miserable situation like that?
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Ironically enough, at the same time CNN was covering their return home, they also ran a piece about the funeral of a young 20-year-old soldier killed in Afghanistan. This was surprising, given how CNN cheer-led the invasion of Iraq. Remember how they presented the bombing of Baghdad as if it were an action movie?  See the flames envelop the city! See our bombs kill all those Iraqis!
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No, I'm not used to CNN actually filming a casket arriving at Dover Air Force Base nor showing the weeping wife and children at the fallen man's graveside. I wonder how the reporter slipped that story through the hawk management of the news channel?
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Be that as it may, the point is: we Americans get so worked up about two people trapped in a horror story that, thankfully, has a happy ending, but seem to be oblivious to the fact that so many of our military personnel are needlessly dying right now, thus obviating the possibility of a similarly joyful outcome. They will never come home alive.
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As the organizer of the weekly Wednesday Grandmothers Against the War vigil at Rockefeller Center in New York City, which has been meeting without fail for over 5 1/2 years, I keep track of the casualty statistics week to week so that I can have accurate counts on the sign I hold showing the numbers of American deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has been heartbreaking to note the upsurge in such deaths. From last Wednesday to this past Wednesday, for instance, TWELVE G.I.s died in Afghanistan. At least ten died in each of the recent weeks before. Lesser numbers have been dying in Iraq, but they are STILL dying there, despite the much-heralded evacuation of our troops from the cities.
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This is simply not acceptable. When will President Obama realize that this is a losing proposition? And, even worse, a very deadly one. I know that during his campaign for President, he repeatedly said that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, principally because it removed manpower and focus from Afghanistan. I heard him say that several times, but it didn't strike me, in my blind adoration of him and desperate hope for his election, that he was heading down a very dangerous and misguided path.
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And, now we see the unmistakable proof of that.   Here we are again -- more and more of our young Americans dying, more and more innocent civilians dying. And, for no discernible cause. What ARE we doing there?  We are risking all these lives in order to capture one man, Bin Laden? Is it worth it? Is he there? Is he even alive? All this destruction chasing what seems to be an illusion.
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We must have the same intense emotion for all our young forces in Iraq and Afghanistan that we had for the two young women in North Korea. And, we must express that emotion through constant pressure on Congress and the President.Â
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We peace grannies here in New York City are doing all we can to apply this pressure. In addition to the Rockefeller Center vigil, our Granny Peace Brigade holds a protest every Friday at the military recruitment center in Times Square. We ask -- HOW MANY? and HOW MUCH? and we answer the questions with big signs showing how many people are dying and being wounded and how much money is being wasted on these counter-productive ventures.
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I urge all reading this piece to do the same. Write letters, make calls, hold vigils. We must feel deep down the same urgency for our soldiers in awful, treacherous circumstances that we did for Euna Lee and Laura Ling. We must say, all of us, over and over -- BRING THEM HOME!Â
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