The other night I saw this program on TV about the deaths of young soldiers in Iraq who were stationed at Fort Irwin, CA. The messages were delivered by a Lieutenant Colonel who has the hardest job in the Army. I know, "I've been there." It featured one young 26 old wife and a small child. A picture of the young couple was flashed on the screen of a happier time. I was sad beyond all means.
Do these youngsters get over this? How do they move on? They don't! Once when I was a church pastor, I was talking casually with one of our older members. Suddenly, she teared up. When I inquired as to why, she related how as a young bride her husband went off to WW ll and never returned. Since then, she had gone on to marry and raise a family; but, she said, "Almost everyday, I have a thought about my young life and the husband who never returned from war." I never knew she had even been married before. The answer is NO, these young families will never get over it.
WERE WE DESTINED FOR A CLASH OF CULTURES?:
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with an attorney about Iraq. His comments quite surprised me as I thought he was either uninformed about the war or was a maxed out liberal (I hate labels, but we are so into them that it is almost impossible not to describe positions in this way) who would only see a narrow view of the war totally infused with politics. As often happens, I was wrong. His view of Iraq was that maybe it was inevitable. While quickly saying he surely didn't agree with much of the President's agenda; still, he had to wonder in light of history, if the clash of cultures was not inevitable. If Osama's goal was to extinguish the lives of infidels, it was much more simple than we tried to make it. Then, it was a clash of cultures which we simply at some time or another had to fight. Interesting view.
BURIED HEADS IN THE SAND:
On the satirical but more likely than not "right on" The Daily show, Jon Stewart had the author of Squandered Opportunities (think that is the title) on his program. A book I want to read. This guy goes to Iraq at the request of Condi Rice to give an objective assessment of the war . He does and then sends her a report. She never hears from him again. No sweat because you can rest assured that the taxpayer forked over beaucoup bucks for his report and now he has a book. Regardless, he was not so much critical about Iraq, at least on Stewart's program: basically he said, "If we had had a carefully worked out plan to screw up the aftermath of the war in Iraq, we could not have done a better job." Stewart made this cogent comment, something like, "What amazes me is that I've had people like Colin Powell on the show, those I admired, and trusted ; but, when asked the hard questions, it is like their brains go into some sort of 'brain freeze.' No realism on the war." Exactly how I feel: what is it with these people? We are all reading the same stuff and hearing all the newscasts and now we have a book like Squandered Opportunity. What is it? JHL
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