Was He Worth It?
Two related things deserving of comment happened this week at almost the same time. As just about everybody knows, President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan. A day earlier, a Blog reader asked why I limit posts honoring our war dead in the Middle East to men and women from Michigan.
Considering the question first, the Geezer would like to honor all our troops and those of our allies equally. Unfortunately, I simply don’t have the time or resources to identify and salute every individual who falls in combat or is killed as a result of our wars in the Muslim world.
I only had to lower my flag and do a post here four times during April to recognize American heroes from my home state of Michigan who were killed in the Middle East. Four is a terrible toll, but it is only a fraction of the 49 young men and women from throughout the USA who were killed during April in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it is an even smaller number compared to the total of NATO allies lost plus hundreds of Afghans and Iraqis killed during the month.
The news media seem to have lost any interest they had in reporting Middle East casualties, but if you want to keep track of part of the carnage you can do so at http://freedomremembered.com/. That site will give you details of American deaths as they continue at the rate of about one every day. For the others, you will have to do additional detective work.
One of our government’s stated purposes for spending nearly a decade as an occupying force in Afghanistan was to hunt down bin Laden. Now we have succeeded in that. I most assuredly do not mourn his passing. But I wonder whether the life of that despicable monster was worth even one of the fallen sons, daughters, or grandchildren of my Michigan neighbors and many other good people throughout the world who participated in his pursuit.
Will we now honor all of our troops and their comrades by bringing them home?
4 comments:
Excellent post!!!!
Your last question is one that I'd like to have answered, too. Somehow, I don't think I'd like the answer much. Another question I'm asking is: Why is Pakistan our ally?
So many good people on both sides have been fodder for these wars. I pray that we can bring our boys and girls home and the sooner the better.
So sad. We live in a 'military' state (number of military per capita is very high -- the SEALS that got Osama are from VA), and next to Arlington Cemetery so the war is never far from our minds. Plus, many of us had connections to Viet Nam. My first husband was an active duty career Marine during the Viet Nam era.
Dianne
Nice of you to mention "NATO allies". So often I get the impression that Americans think that they are on their own in these conflicts.
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