Fellow Denizen Ry started something over at Castle Argghhh, with his views on what it is exactly that we 'normals' (ie., civilians) have to feel tired about regarding Iraq, in response to Murdoc's post America is at the mall. Be sure to read the responses to Ry, as the comments generated cover some interesting ground.
As I wandered about, exercising the new links in my sidebar, I was intrigued by the viewpoint from Joel Maxwell on the whole debate in Washington. From his position in Afghanistan, where he is deployed, Joel ponders on the politics, and has some good questions ... which don't have clear cut answers.
On her own blog, his wife Amy was kind enough to point to several posts by military Chaplains. I was especially intrigued by Chaplain Christian's post The Dichotomy. His words are worth reading in their entirety, but this bit resonated strongly with me...
I am called to nourish the living, care for the wounded, and honor the dead. I can do that regardless of what I think about the politics behind the war. Yet, I also happen to think the war is the right thing to be doing. That doesn’t make my job worthwhile, but it certainly makes it more worthwhile. I hope that makes sense. It would be much more difficult to do my job if I thought what we were doing was wrong, or evil.
Yet, this is what the public projects on us. If you say the war in immoral, and that we came for the wrong reasons, and that we’re doing the wrong thing, you have to understand that it will affect those actually conducting the war!
I added my own thoughts to each of these conversations. But I'd rather leave you with the thoughts of Kat-Missouri, who nailed it (again) better than I could.
I'll sum it up:
War sucks.
Death sucks.
Seeing mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, wives crying over a flag draped coffin sucks.
Looking at pictures of 18 year olds who will never see 19 sucks.
Knowing you can't be there to help them carry the load sucks.
Trying to figure out what's going on and not getting the whole picture sucks.
Knowing that all of this sucks and you still believe we should do it because, while it all sucks, what you imagine happens next sucks more.
Knowing that tomorrow, our representative republic could decide to leave either or both fronts and leave hundreds of thousands of people to die (if not millions - some of who have become friends through organizations and internet) sucks.
It all sucks.
Tomorrow, here and there, we will wake up and do it again like an ugly groundhog day.
Sometimes I am angry, sometimes I am sad, sometimes I am energized. It is those ups and downs that make me weary. Still, most days I only feel resolute. I suck it all in and add it to that resolution, because we aren't done until the mission is done.
Still, it sucks. |
|