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First of all, let me say that I had NO IDEA this was happening, or I would have talked to him myself.
This weekend, my sister in law makes a "routine" call to my wife. She's on the phone a long time in a part of the house where I can't hear the conversation. My wife fills me in afterwards. Keep in mind, my sister in law is a staunch democrat. I think some of this was news to her, as well.
Turns out our nephew, whom we thought was attending college and living in a fraternity...well, half of that is correct. He's living in the fraternity house. He had dropped out due to grades, gotten a part time job, and then lost that job. Unbeknownst to us, he had been nearly recruited by a frat brother, who was serving in Iraq and had come home, showing him his medals and talking up the sign on "incentives". Our nephew was gung ho to sign up, and had even argued with his mom, who told him "sure, they pay your education, but what good is that if you come home in a body bag?" (I wish I'd known of this because I would have backed her up)
He was adamant to do this because he saw no other way to earn money.!!!!!
ok, now here's the tragic part. Remember his frat brother? the one with all the medals? That frat brother was one of the 14 Ohians just killed last week. That frat brothers's photo was on the cover of USA today.
Our nephew called his mother, crying (she didn't know that it was the same guy). NOW he'll not enlist.
I say, GOOD (that he won't enlist), but I also say WTF? It took having to know someone who died before he realized it wasn't a good idea? What about all the other soldiers he didn't know? didn't that make any impact?
This is why they hide flag-draped coffin photos, this is why Bush never attends a funeral service, this is why the heroic war dead are not given faces, or talked about by this administration..
because THEY KNOW that if people put a human cost to the number 1,833, that they'll WAKE UP!
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