Bush's war in Iraq has done untold damage to the United States. It has impaired our military power and undermined the morale of our armed forces. Our troops were trained to project overwhelming power. They were not trained for occupation duties.
George Soros
I am the farthest thing from a political activist. Now, my Jeremy—he gets into causes. He writes his Congressman, pens letters to the editor, even goes to the occasional rally. He gets involved. Sometimes when he gets going on something, I feel my eyes glaze over as I try valiantly to look interested. I can’t help it—I’m more of a “take care of my own self and what I’ve been given” kind of gal. Not that I am disconnected from the rest of the world, nor am I uncaring. I just feel that “out there” can be too overwhelming and there’s so little difference I can make. Some power (be it Mother Nature, the Universe, God or simply darn good fortune) has handed me my own little corner of the world to tend, so I do. I love my family and nurture my friendships; exercise my body and pay my bills, give my clients excellent service, ask for forgiveness when I make a mistake and plant flowers to beautify my yard in the summer. I wear sunscreen, floss, buy organic and shop locally. I avoid toxic people and situations so that I can keep an optimistic outlook, give to charity and encourage others—offering a hand and good thoughts if someone is struggling. I appreciate what I have, use my talents as best I can to benefit others and expand my mind to the best of my ability. I give discounts to servicemen and women and encourage everyone to follow their dreams and live with passion.. Everyone is always welcome at my table; I don’t litter this beautiful planet that I call home and on my best days, I even exfoliate and remember to call my mother.
I take care of my small piece of the world and figure if everyone else did the same, the world would be a lot better place. Come on—don’t you think we’d all be a whole lot better off if Osama bin Laden spent time planting a garden around the front entrance to his cave than in plotting to obliterate the Western World? And where would Ted Haggard be today if he had spent more time…say…..well doing almost anything other than telling people what they should and shouldn’t be doing behind closed doors and then being hypocritical about it? I mean, if you’re going to be homophobic, at least be genuine about it!
Funny thing about self-righteousness (mine, not Ted Haggard’s). Sometimes you’re applauding yourself for taking such darn good care of business and feeling like you’re truly contributing until someone or something hits you in between the eyes and you realize…well…maybe it isn’t so.
Have you seen the movie Ground Truth? If you want a good date movie or a chick flick, then pass. But if you want to open your eyes about the real situation in Iraq and you don’t mind feeling helpless and angry, then go for it. The film is a documentary about the men and women who have fought, lived and died while fighting “for our country” in Iraq. It details the human cost of this atrocity—not in the number of troops killed as we see on the nightly news, but the human toll it extracts. The 19 year olds enticed by a military recruiter who offer to pay full scholarship to college in return for a few weekends a year. Oh, the travel, the skills, opportunities galore! And don’t forget the maturation process! Deployed to a war zone?? Not likely! Sign the boy (or the girl) up!
Fast forward to the desert. Mama’s little boy is being brain-washed to kill. Last year’s high school graduate is reciting chants that extol the virtues of killing the “rag heads and the Hodgies.” You are hot, scared and exhausted. You want to go back home and see your girlfriend? Then you need to take this rifle and go out there and blast away. This is not an enemy you can easily spot. Sometimes it is disguised in the body of a grieving mother concealing a bomb or a brown-eyed child ready to hurl a grenade. As one soldier put it, “you don’t know where to focus your aggression.”
And the worst thing? You don’t know why you are here. Is this a war for oil or George’s personal vendetta? Is the freedom of Americans at stake? No one seems to think so. Is this all from 9/11? Ummm…dunno. Over and over in this film you see soldiers being interviewed--soldiers who will never be the same. Some have lost limbs, many are disfigured. Emotionally they are wrecked. Fathers of small children have seen Iraqi children slaughtered in the streets; small town regular guys are struggling to fit back into communities that try to be supportive but can’t fathom why giving a hero’s welcome only makes things worse. The bureaucratic red tape surrounding the process of getting help from the VA causes many of these soldiers to abandon hope—sometimes at the expense of their lives. And to a man, they couldn’t tell you why it was of benefit for them to have gone over there.
Think about the hardest thing you ever had to endure in your life. What was it--a divorce, the death of a loved one, a job termination, having to deliver devastating news? Perhaps you fought in Vietnam or you’ve struggled with addiction. Perhaps your greatest cross to bear has been being stuck in a dead-end job for a while, financial difficulties, or a crummy marriage. Whatever it was, think about what got you through it. Wasn’t it believing? Believing that things would get better, a belief that your suffering would serve some good in the long run; conviction that someone might be inspired by your strength, hope that at the very least, you’d learn and grow from this experience. In spite of the struggle, if you got quiet and thought about it, you could hopefully pull out some benefit or purpose for your difficulty. Everyone needs hope and a reason for being, especially when going through a difficult time. If not for the conviction that we serve a purpose, that we’re making a difference somewhere, somehow, then why bother?
That’s what is the most chilling about this film. Over and over they admit they don’t know what good they did; don’t understand why they as an individual or the United States as a country is over there. They did what they were told was their duty and they paid the ultimate price. But they don’t know why, or what good it did.
Today I heard that anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has called it quits. She says,"Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.” I think she just got tired. Tired of trying, tired of the obstacles; tired of feeling like she couldn’t effect change in spite of her monumental efforts. She says she wants to go back home and “be normal”. No one will fault her. She’s paid her dues.
As have our young men and women in Iraq, yet they can never go back to their version of “normal”. Maybe we need to think beyond our own little corner of the world. Maybe tending our own garden isn’t enough, after all. Perhaps our world is too complicated for such a naïve view. I still don’t know how to activate a change across the world. I’m terrified of the consequences if people like me don’t step up to the plate; yet I don’t know what to do. I went to the Ground Truth website (www.thegroundtruth.net ) so I could get and share some ideas with my readers. Do you know what they advise? Making a contribution to Operation Helmet. Apparently, this government of ours that pays $400 for a military toilet seat does not always provide our fighters (those would be the same kids who’ve given up their own lives to shoot and bomb people for no reason that is apparent to anyone) with padded helmets to protect them. Once again, I was appalled….and saddened…and very, very afraid…
…perhaps my corner of the world is bigger than I thought.
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