Remember The Fallen
So as I type this, I'm looking out over a cemetery in a small Texas town. The fields are irregularly spotted with American flags. Each one marks the site of a veteran's grave. I've wandered about and looked at the dates on the markers. I've seen a lot of War 2 and Vietnam service, but the death dates are far removed in time from the actual conflicts. So far, all I've seen is the resting places of the guys who made it home. The flags are a nice gesture, but today isn't our day. Our day is in November.
Today is the day for the ones who didn't come home. As my regiment trains at NTC and elements of my division are deployed in Afghanistan, it's a day to reflect on the terrible price paid when we decide to go to war. I don't think we pay enough attention to the enormity of the cost. Political considerations and budgetary issues dominate the debate, and I rarely hear politicians mention much about the human cost. Speaking as a guy who has loaded body bags on medevac choppers, this disturbs me.
So if you haven't already, take a moment today and think about the young men and women who are dying to achieve our nebulous foreign policy goals. Ask yourself if what we're trying to achieve is worth some more deaths. Personally, I'd like it if this generation doesn't have to keep pulling dog tags off shredded and mangled bodies before loading the remains for transport. But since we're going to continue to ask them to do just that, we'd better make damned sure what we're trying to do is worth the sacrifice.
Today is the day for the ones who didn't come home. As my regiment trains at NTC and elements of my division are deployed in Afghanistan, it's a day to reflect on the terrible price paid when we decide to go to war. I don't think we pay enough attention to the enormity of the cost. Political considerations and budgetary issues dominate the debate, and I rarely hear politicians mention much about the human cost. Speaking as a guy who has loaded body bags on medevac choppers, this disturbs me.
So if you haven't already, take a moment today and think about the young men and women who are dying to achieve our nebulous foreign policy goals. Ask yourself if what we're trying to achieve is worth some more deaths. Personally, I'd like it if this generation doesn't have to keep pulling dog tags off shredded and mangled bodies before loading the remains for transport. But since we're going to continue to ask them to do just that, we'd better make damned sure what we're trying to do is worth the sacrifice.
Labels: army, death comes ripping, holiday
posted by T at 7:40 PM
1 Comments:
What we owe our soldiers, especially the ones who never made it out alive, seems to always be near the bottom of the list of "political considerations".
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