As a kid growing up in New York, I would regularly visit the Hayden Planetarium. I was in awe of the unimaginable vastness of our universe.
I would sit in a weird sort of theater "surrounded" by what I perceived to be "all of the stars and planets that there were out there in space." It was indeed a magical place.
It was during one of those visits that I heard a story concerning the reaction of an older woman who was attending a lecture on astronomy who screamed when she heard that the earth would crash into the sun in about 25 billion years. She calmed down and said that she had misunderstood and believed that the lecturer mentioned 25 million years and was relieved to know that it was 25 billion years. 25 million or billion did in fact not make the slightest difference.
And now at last, back to "the Wars."
There have been so many numbers circulated as to the actual killing and wounding of their "innocents" as well as "our innocents" that the numbers can vary all over the place particularly when speaking of "theirs." We continue to wage (in a manner of speaking) our wonderful wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Have we managed as "the good guys" to kill or wound 25,000, 250,000, or 2,500,000 of "the bad guys and hardly anyone seems to care?
When working in television I just adored watching "the system" name shows in a manner as to describe what they were about. How much simpler could it be then to call an hour cop show Police Story or how about Law and Order.
Our wonderful Government, I expect from both parties do the same thing. How about their creative use of names like:
"Operation Iraqi Freedom"
"Operation New Dawn"
"The Second Gulf War"
"The Occupation of Iraq"
"Operation Enduring Freedom"
And of course it makes me nuts to hear almost all of our media following the government's lead and refer to those from Afghanistan who are not thrilled with the presence of an invading army "us" yet "we" have the temerity to call "them" (the people who live there) "insurgents."
Dictionary.com tells us that: an insurgent is a person who raises in forcible opposition to lawful authority... a person who engages in armed resistance to a government or to the execution of its laws; rebel.
We successfully bombed a near to "stone age" country further back into the "stone age."
How about that it is their country and they are opposed to an invading army, OURS! How can we possibly consider that we are "lawful," yet we do?
When I hear the Republicans whine about the Obama spending tears come to my eyes. This Sunday on Meet the Press I had the opportunity of hearing the Republican House Minority leader Boehner diminish himself by among other things repeatedly vilifying our President about spending.
The total long-term cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (A Republican War) would range between $3.5 trillion and $4.5 trillion, depending on one's willingness to accept the numbers proffered. This does not include the numbers that are hidden from us, but what the hell.
I detest the expression "blood and treasure" but it is time to address the "blood" aspect of these wars in killed and wounded, which I will limit to "theirs."
It seems to me that we have retained, to a greater or lesser extent, a "ho-hum" attitude about this aspect of our involvement in two wars with only a dim view as to when they will end if ever.
Will one million casualties suffice or perhaps two million? Will we ever know the truth about this?
Few have as they say, "any skin" in the game and as long as that persists, the GAME OF WAR will continue, and continue and continue. Few American lives have changed at all during all of these wars and they are being fought by other people's kids.
It would be a good thing if at least once a day every day that ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox mentioned SOMETHING or ANYTHING about our wars. How about showing America pictures of those killed and wounded?
ANYTHING, but for goodness sake we MUST do something to end these wars!