A Simple Question

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

I don't want this to turn into a debate about the war, or even about Plamegate/Fitzmas, but I have a question. How is honoring the soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan exploitation? How is showing their names on TV exploitation? If you're against the war, and you feel that those soldiers died for the wrong war (that's not my view, but I'm just saying) then that's your opinion. I don't agree that they died in vain, but to say so isn't exploiting their deaths.

I know that more soldiers died in WWII and Vietnam. Since when do we judge tragedies that way? Did we say on 9/11, "Well, we lost 51,000 in WWII, why are we weeping over these 3,000?" Of course we didn't. Was it exploitation to weep for those lost in the tsunami, or Katrina?

I understand that those who view this war differently will see the sacrifices of our troops differently. There are those on the fringes who not only mock the dead, but call for more. There are those who exploit the dead for political gain (Karl Rove, I'm talking to ya).


I've always believed, and maybe I'm naive in this, that regardless of one's stance on OIF, that all of us ought to honor the sacrifices of our troops. I don't think bringing them home prematurely does them or the Iraqis a service, but acknowledging the 2,000 dead in this war is hardly exploitation, at least not in of itself.

Despite what the right-wingers would have us believe...

[obxhead]

1. It started with a lie, How many MORE should die?

[nookiemonster]

2. It's not exploitation at all. It's just more noise from the 'cons.

The RW would rather ignore it. They learned during Vietnam that, by showing the dead, it would undermine their efforts.

Hence the reason why Dover AFB "transfer tube" pictures are not allowed.

[stillcool]

3. Every life has a story....

and so many are silenced. To acknowledge a person's life and death is to honor their existence and my own. I wanted to print out their names to take with me to the vigil tomorrow nite. It was 39 pages. Thirty-nine pages of face-less names.

[TahitiNut]

4. A soldier puts his life in trust to the People. It's called Service.

When I was a soldier, we trusted the People to not waste our lives on dishonorable pursuits. We were sent to Viet Nam. Many of those ("People") who felt Viet Nam was not an honorable war, misguidedly thought the dishonor was ours. It was not. It was theirs.

That's the word: HONOR.

When a soldier's life is spent on a dishonorable pursuit, the dishonor is the People's, not the soldier's.

[nookiemonster]

6. Thank you.

You summed it up succinctly.

:)

[Renegade Six]

7. Thank You.

[obxhead]

5. I have read your post again and say....

The # dead is not a daily news item. Ok,it has been in the last week as we have gotten to the 2,000 mark, but otherwise it has not been spoken of within the MSM.
It's hard to answer this without taking a side. IMO our troops have been put into harms way to fight a war for unjust reasons.

We invaded Iraq to stop them from an attack on US soil with a WMD. It has become fact, admitted by the Bush admin, that they were wrong. Every prediction from the Bush admin about how this war would go and be carried out has been false. Do we continue with this war?
As far as I can tell Iraq will/is in civil war. Everything has gone wrong with US strategy in Iraq yet we make no changes. To continue fighting a war, right or wrong, without an adjustment of strategy to current situations is quite simply stupid.