by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I am tired of war.
In my six decades we have fought in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq (twice), the Balkans, Afghanistan, and now Libya. Well, actually several U.S. Presidential administrations have rattled their sabers toward Libya, and a few even sent in bombers to show Kadafi our air might. Removing Moammar Kadafi from the world political stage has become a national obsession second only to our fixation on Fidel Castro - a revolutionary who spit in the eye of every U.S. President from Eisenhower to Baby Bush - and has been relaxing in an Havana hospital room spitting in God's eye for the past few years.
Today we are fighting in Iraq, though that war is supposedly ending - but we are going to leave troops there nonetheless. Today we are fighting in Afghanistan, and if there is an end in sight to that war, the American public remains in the dark as to what it is. (Remember Afghanistan - the Soviet military debacle of the 1980's that did so much to bring an end to the Soviet Union? Ask the Ruskies for their take on how winnable Afghanistan is.)
And then there is Libya.
Yes, Moammar Kadafi is a murderous bastard whose demise could only improve the conditions of Libya and her people, or so we speculate. But Kadafi is a cockroach, and we all know how hard it is to kill a cockroach. We have bombed his home in the past and killed relatives, but never the cockroach himself. Today a NATO air strike hit the home of Kadafi's next to youngest son, Seif al Arab Kadafi, in a residential area of Tripoli. Daddy Kadafi and his Missus were reportedly in the house, but they got away unscathed. Seif, however, described as a student in Germany, was killed along with three of his children.
The cockroach lives, but three of his grandchildren are dead.
The cockroach will have as many lives as Fidel - but grandchildren are dying. Grandchildren are dying in Libya, grandchildren are dying in Iraq, and grandchildren are dying in Afghanistan. Little grandchildren are dying, sons and daughters are dying, people struggling just to survive and feed their families are dying. About the only people who aren't dying are Kadafi, Castro, and the politicians around the globe who engineer wars for glory, fame, and profit. The cockroaches march on.
Grandchildren should never die.
War sucks.
All war sucks.
I am so tired of war.
Citizen Journalist
I am tired of war.
In my six decades we have fought in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq (twice), the Balkans, Afghanistan, and now Libya. Well, actually several U.S. Presidential administrations have rattled their sabers toward Libya, and a few even sent in bombers to show Kadafi our air might. Removing Moammar Kadafi from the world political stage has become a national obsession second only to our fixation on Fidel Castro - a revolutionary who spit in the eye of every U.S. President from Eisenhower to Baby Bush - and has been relaxing in an Havana hospital room spitting in God's eye for the past few years.
Today we are fighting in Iraq, though that war is supposedly ending - but we are going to leave troops there nonetheless. Today we are fighting in Afghanistan, and if there is an end in sight to that war, the American public remains in the dark as to what it is. (Remember Afghanistan - the Soviet military debacle of the 1980's that did so much to bring an end to the Soviet Union? Ask the Ruskies for their take on how winnable Afghanistan is.)
And then there is Libya.
Yes, Moammar Kadafi is a murderous bastard whose demise could only improve the conditions of Libya and her people, or so we speculate. But Kadafi is a cockroach, and we all know how hard it is to kill a cockroach. We have bombed his home in the past and killed relatives, but never the cockroach himself. Today a NATO air strike hit the home of Kadafi's next to youngest son, Seif al Arab Kadafi, in a residential area of Tripoli. Daddy Kadafi and his Missus were reportedly in the house, but they got away unscathed. Seif, however, described as a student in Germany, was killed along with three of his children.
The cockroach lives, but three of his grandchildren are dead.
The cockroach will have as many lives as Fidel - but grandchildren are dying. Grandchildren are dying in Libya, grandchildren are dying in Iraq, and grandchildren are dying in Afghanistan. Little grandchildren are dying, sons and daughters are dying, people struggling just to survive and feed their families are dying. About the only people who aren't dying are Kadafi, Castro, and the politicians around the globe who engineer wars for glory, fame, and profit. The cockroaches march on.
Grandchildren should never die.
War sucks.
All war sucks.
I am so tired of war.
1 comment:
Ken Follett's wonderful Century Triology begins with a look at World War I, and how the world drifted into one of the most costly wars (in terms of human life) ever fought.
Throughout the course of human history, those in power have fought to expand their reach -- using those unfortunates they rule as cannon fodder.
And as much as war truly does suck, it seems destined to consume the planet's human resources for some time to come.
America seems determined to remain in Iraq forever -- not because of any real interest in the land or its people, but in order to possess a staging area for the last great war of our era -- the one that will be fought over control of the last of the world's oil. the thinking seems to be that whoever can run their military equipment the longest will eventually rule.
I'm no longer sure exactly why we're fighting in Afghanistan. Obama promised to get us out and instead approved a "surge." The same kind of surge that was used in Iraq and which only worked for as long as there were troops on hand to implement it.
Post a Comment