t r u t h o u t | Forum Thursday 08 January 2004 I wrote this article, about the fact that we will soon have 500 American soldiers dead in Iraq, on Wednesday. Twenty-four hours later, ten more Americans were added to the list of the lost in Iraq. The number now stands at 497. Why? Because we were lied to. Such a price we have paid. Such a price we will continue to pay. If you missed the article, it is here: The Five Hundred. What Our Readers Said:
Bill Berkowitz My brother, who is a very smart lawyer/Viet Nam vet, predicts there will be 1000 dead before this is all over. I kept thinking the American people would wake up to this sham, but it appears that W will sail to a second term. I fear what will be in store for the country I love when he does. It's not just the war that I disagree with, it is all the other plans W and the repubs have in store for us. The Baby Boomers are in for a rude awakening. Enough with the rhetorical flourishes. You have said this a million times. It is no longer persuasive. We all know how outraged you are that noWMD's are there. We agree with you. Now, move on. You sound like a broken record. Start spending your considerable linguistic skills elsewhere. blah blah blah I have admired your work for a long time.....this is the first time I have noticed that you entered into my range of study; Edwardian England. Your piece is great. However, it left me thinking that Owen was somewhat lucky, if such a tragedy can been viewed in such a way. His end came quick, unlike Sasson, Graves, Blunden and Lawrence, to name a few, who all seemed doomed to spend the rest of their lives haunted by the horrors which they faced down in man's senseless inhumanity towards fellow man. They spent their lives retracing their experiences and never truly finding peace from the war they survived yet "killed" them. I cry when I think what the war Iraq is doing to our troops now.....what is it about us humans that doesn't allow us to learn from these catastrophic follies. My dear friend regularly forwards your "Truthout" to me. Upon reading it, I in turn forward it on to those in my address book. Thank you for your devotion to the truth. I must tell you that I found your story "The Five Hundred" particularly poinant. It truly brings home the real loss we have suffered by this needless war. The senseless spending is inexcuseable, without a doubt, but pales by comparison to the tragic loss of life and irreparable mutilation and anguish inflicted on our heroic sons and daughters and their families. I have a step-son who a Marine, stationed in Japan. I know at any given time he too could be called to Iraq. The truth must be told. It must be shouted from the rooftops, less yet another generation should suffer at the hands of the ruthless. Thank you for quoting one of my favourite war poets, in a recent piece
of yours. Wilfred Owen was cut down in the prime of his life as you
say, but his words are undying. Another poet of that particular genre
was Siegfried Sassoon, who unlike Owen died peacefully in his bed, many
years after the carnage on the Western Front was over. Reading on the
progressive Internet (perhaps even on your Website) that some conservative
non-think tank has accused some elements of Bush's crew of "...lacking
the will to win" somehow brought one of Sassoon's poems, "The
General" to "Good Morning!, Good Morning!" the General said, "He's a cheery old card", cried Harry to Jack, What would suffice to put Bush and Blair in the picture of what fighting an asymmetric war is like? Serving some delectatious "Meals Ready to Eat" to a gathering of some of these "think tanks" at the next White House banquet might be a start! I just read "The Five Hundred." What a powerful essay. I was still teaching when the USA invaded Iraq. I had a collection of writings to do with the students that included "Here Dead Lie We" by A.E. Houseman. Here Dead Lie We Here dead lie we because we did not choose My mother, who is 90 and slipping mentally, told me today that the army called her yesterday or today and told her my father was killed in the war. He was a combat officer in WW II, and while he came back to the USA and fathered me, I've often looked at pictures of the person he was prior to the war and then remembered the man I did not really know but sometimes lived with, and I know at least a large part of him did, in fact, die in the South Pacific during those years. And once again we humans are inflicting this disconnect into our soldiers, their families, and our future - in both countries. Thanks so much for your enduring work. Being from New York, (tri-state area) --, having NOT voted for Bush, witnessing the failure of the electoral college in the process, and experiencing the events of the 11th, I think i have one point to make. However Bush is perceived now, pre/post invasion, one fact remains. He did, in my eyes, the BEST one could. Before you criticize him, and believe me, it's easy to do. One must first put themself in his shoes. In the Special Edition of TIME magazine that followed that dark day, there is a picture of Pres. Bush reading to some schoolchildren. One whisper from an aid into his ear and his face goes blank. Rudy Guiliani did a fantastic job with ONE city........One man and one man alone had a country to carry. You want to understand what the whole Bush family went through those days and the month's following? I don't. For god's sake, the poor guy went from brownish grey to a head of entirely grey hair in a matter of days. I'm a registered 24 yr. old Democrat. This letter is to any reader who has REALLY thought about what it is to be the leader of the free world. To everyone who understands how war is declared constitutionaly, To anyone, like myself, who has always aspired to correctly fulfill the requirements of the office of the President. To everyone that can understand he's doing the best WE can. |
TO Forum Archive Marc Ash:
|
||
© : t r u t h o u t 2003 | t r u t h o u t | forum | issues | editorial | letters | donate | contact || voting rights | environment | budget | children | politics | indigenous survival | energy | | defense | health | economy | human rights | labor | trade | women | reform | global | |