In
light of recent protests against President Bush’s proposal to
send more troops to the war in Iraq, I began to ask some family members
in the military what they thought about it.
I should say, first off, I have never been truly for going to Iraq.
I never understood what Saddam Hussein had to do with Osama bin Laden
and why we didn’t go after bin Laden, if he was in fact the
one, with his organized crew, who schemed against America and took
out vital financial and political symbols.
I lost many friends on Sept.11, both at the WTC and at the art school
below it. Yet, I have lost more family members a result of their return
to Iraq, some on their second tour of it. So I began to ask why. Did
they think risking their lives was as result of their duty, a sense
of pride that kept them from quitting despite familial pleas or did
they really believe in what they were doing?
Three out of the four started with it was their duty, first and foremost
to their country, then to their families, who deserve freedom in this
country, and thirdly because they knew when they signed up for the
reserves that they might be called to war.
So I asked them if it really mattered why they were going to war.
One cousin was so bold as to say that he didn’t agree with many
aspects of this particular war (this is after returning from both
Iraq in 2004 and Desert Storm, earlier), but respected that this president
wanted to finish what he started.
He did say in a softer voice with tears swelling in his eyes, that
he has a fear of not returning to his two children, ages four and
two, and to his wife.
Maybe it was the diversity of their jobs that completely took their
views in different directions. My other cousin, quite a bit younger
and on her first tour of Iraq, was angry. She was signed up for the
reserves unlike the other three signed up for the Army and Marines.
She was angry because, though she initially signed up because, of
a vengeful feeling and pride to “protect her country”
after Sept.11, she thought this war would be over by now. She didn’t
understand how it could have dragged on for so long and in such a
skewed direction.
She is so resentful that she has considered going AWOL when she is
called up - or even committing suicide. She said that when she signed
up, she understood that you “do what you’re told because
your life isn’t yours anymore,” but that the war has caused
such pain and conflict.
When she left for boot camp, she had a good job in the police force
and was a well respected honor roll student attending university,
planning to become a lawyer.
When she came back, because she had been gone so long it was hard
for her continue her education because she knew she would have to
leave again, maybe in the middle of the semester.
She also had to take another job because they had filled her position
after a year and half.
I see the war so differently through their eyes after talking with
them, but I am angrier that my cousin who did lose his life in this
war had to leave his family with little in the way of benefits and
a short legacy.
My father’s being a Vietnam veteran always confused me. I didn’t
understand why someone would risk his life for another until I worked
in the medical field.
Even now I still don’t understand how so many people take for
granted the freedom that these soldiers fight for. Many people live
their lives as if they shouldn’t be alive, or worse don’t
strive to achieve the very goals that these soldiers might have helped
their own children with.
America isn’t as free as everyone thinks it is. We’re
a capitalist country and wars make money. Weapon manufacturers actually
have a vested interest in continuing this war. For those who think
more is less, I’m not sorry to say that I believe sending more
troops would mean that even fewer come home alive.
