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(AFP/HO/File)
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The Big Picture
Recently, I saw young California National Guard soldiers coming home from Iraq. They were interviewed: great to be home, did lots of good, helped the people, thought they did the right thing. Hope we won't cut and run.
As much as I respect the soldiers and their sacrifices and even understand them, it sounded like an official denial news conference. Drives me crazy.
I always realize that soldiers have to believe in what they are doing, regardless of the facts. Even in Vietnam, I can remember feeling that we are really helping these people. It was only after the war and I began to read and understand that I came to know what a farce it was.
It does not mean that we didn't do our duty and I realize many Vietnam vets will see it entirely different. These soldiers, I believe, will see their war from a different perspective in several months or years than they do now.
I always think that, like Vietnam, we have to get past the very subjective feelings of young soldiers returning from a traumatic experience-simply, they must believe in that experience. It is human nature. However, those of us who care must see the big picture. It is our job. KT
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CAN'T WIN
Watching American missiles slam into residential Baghdad with wounded and killed Iraqis not only is saddening, but also reminds one that we are in a war that cannot be won.
Errant Rocket attacks, regardless of the mission objectives, makes us look incredibly careless and brutal. Seeing a dead little boy being pulled from the rubble after an attack leaves me as an American shaking my head.
Do the terrorists use civilians and hospitals as hiding places? Of course they do. It is the nature of a guerrilla war and even more the nature of war in urban areas.
It took a young twenty-something to bring the war into focus for me recently. He said something like, "With all the money, the controversy, the various spins, regardless of what side one is on, this fight is killing us spiritually." Maybe so, but rockets fired by Americans to get the bad guys while killing innocents caught in the crossfire makes me realize that simply, we can't win this fight; and, as my bud says, spiritually, it is killing us. God help us. KT
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