Morning Joe
I woke up really early to check out what the financial markets were doing overseas. The news was bad as there seemed to be financial carnage everywhere. Then I settled into watching a discusion on Morning Joe where they were discussing the loss of thirty of our finest soldiers when a helicopter was shot down.
My head went spinning around. We are at war, we want to kill the enemy and they want to kill us. This is not exactly a new concept but the response to the loss of thirty lives in a war as currently fought in the minds of most Americans is strange to me. There have been about 6100 American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last ten years.
During the Viet Nam War there were almost 58,000 American soldiers killed. About 20,000 were killed while they were trying to wind down the war from 1969 to 1973 (about 120 a week). I never served in the military during the Viet Nam War and am not exactly a pacifist but realize that since the Viet Nam War the idea of shared sacrifice is largely limited to members of the military and their immediate families.
I cannot think of a single member of my extended family including nephews, nieces or cousins families that have served in the military since the Viet Nam War and discussions of what we are doing over there has not been a subject for conversation while there have been discussions of birth certificates, ACORN and death panels. Something is out of focus here and it goes way beyond the war on terrorism.
There have been comments that this was unimaginable. After ten years all I can say we have been fortunate that inspite of all our technical advantages it hasn't happened more often with even more casualties.
Our response on the home front has to wring our hands about the carnage on Wall Street and a really phoney political fight about the debt ceiling. This is the substance of our political discussion these days and it is sickening.
My head went spinning around. We are at war, we want to kill the enemy and they want to kill us. This is not exactly a new concept but the response to the loss of thirty lives in a war as currently fought in the minds of most Americans is strange to me. There have been about 6100 American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last ten years.
During the Viet Nam War there were almost 58,000 American soldiers killed. About 20,000 were killed while they were trying to wind down the war from 1969 to 1973 (about 120 a week). I never served in the military during the Viet Nam War and am not exactly a pacifist but realize that since the Viet Nam War the idea of shared sacrifice is largely limited to members of the military and their immediate families.
I cannot think of a single member of my extended family including nephews, nieces or cousins families that have served in the military since the Viet Nam War and discussions of what we are doing over there has not been a subject for conversation while there have been discussions of birth certificates, ACORN and death panels. Something is out of focus here and it goes way beyond the war on terrorism.
There have been comments that this was unimaginable. After ten years all I can say we have been fortunate that inspite of all our technical advantages it hasn't happened more often with even more casualties.
Our response on the home front has to wring our hands about the carnage on Wall Street and a really phoney political fight about the debt ceiling. This is the substance of our political discussion these days and it is sickening.
Comments
Post a Comment