The last man to die for a mistake, this time around, is Army Spec. David Emanuel Hickman. He was hit by an IED on November 14 and later died of his injuries. We mourn his loss.
While our president plays politics, making a speech this week using (again) troops as a background stage prop as did Bush before him, Hickman died. The president, who stated he opposed the war as a candidate eager to manipulate voters, this week said the wisdom of invading Iraq will depend on the judgment of history. Voters are easy to manipulate, as contemptuous politicians know. Current candidates for the presidency outdo each other beating the war drum for Iran.
Our wars, our only legacy from the evil of 9/11, signs of a nation gone mad, have cost America over $4 trillion. They have impoverished our country, caused us to mortgage our future to foreign investors, seen us throw away funding for schools, for police, funding for ourselves, to instead enrich Iraqi and Afghan contractors, fatten Blackwater and stuff the coffers of thugs like KBR.
Yet while money is one thing to squander, we weep over the unnecessary loss of lives. For every fat drunken slob this weekend "supporting the troops" by sticking a magnet (likely made abroad) on his car (likely made abroad), I say, enjoy life in hell. If that is obscene to you, how do you describe these deaths? We have thrown away the best of ourselves.
As for fighting for our freedom, with the arguable exception of the first three months of the now 10-year Afghan war, you have to go back 70 years to find a time when we truly fought to protect America. So stop saying that.
We honor them this Christmas not by sending more of their brothers and sisters to die. Do the dead lack company?
Since the invasion of 2003 until the last soldiers left Iraq this week, 4,474 Americans died there. How many is that? I decided to show myself, typing one X for each of them.
It did not take that long -- a soldier hit in a major vessel can bleed out in only a few minutes -- one key after another. Joshua, Jacob, Rahim, Carol, Towana, Richard, a couple of Peters, another with the same name as my own military-age child. Too many took their own lives, but just an X below nonetheless because they died of this war same as those who died in it.
Pick one X and think about him or her this holiday season.
For every X is a space, 4,474 of them too, moms and dads, brothers, friends, girlfriends, dogs, empty spaces.
And remember the ending of John Kerry's Vietnam-era speech, the famous one that began by asking "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" He concluded by saying, "And so when 30 years from now our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead where America finally turned..."
Kerry was wrong, as we watch the end of yet another war, wondering aloud again when America will turn.
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 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