4,000 Dead Soldiers

From 3/24/08

I woke up to the news this morning that 4,000 soldiers and DOD employees have died in Iraq. Granted the number of fatalities is not as high as WW2 or Vietnam War, but, still.

My education and experience does not include anything even rempotely close to military. Nor do I really understand the politics and culture of the mideast. But... I want to get my mind around what defensive/offensive purpose that 4,000 gave up their lives for.

Every soldier that goes off to war, I take it very personally. They are making HUGE sacrafices in order to keep not just my family and myself safe but to protect our society's way of life. No, I'm not the person who decided to risk their life, but I certainly am the one to benefit from it and my money funds it.

So this morning I'm wondering, exactly what purpose did these 4,000 people dying serve again?

"Honestly, this war is well worth fighting. This war, we are talking about war against global terror," President Bush said Sunday in an interview with CNN.

I'm not the first person to question out loud why are we still in Iraq if the enemy is the terrorists? From what I understand, they al-Qaeda found refuge in AFGHANISTAN?

The leaders of the terrorists are not from Iraq either.

I also understand that as citizens of the world that the "right thing" to do was to take Saddam out of power as he was abusing innocent people and abusing human rights. A resulting civil war would also result in more death and destruction than Saddam did if our soldiers had not invaded. The "right thing" is to not leave a country's people in greater danger than they were prior to the invasion.

What really has had me stuck with me since the start of this whole war... that the above is NOT the REAL reason our soldiers are dying. That is just what we talk about because we don't want to talk about the REAL reason. Are we there because that part of the world is on the verge of blowing themselves up by civil wars and invading each other? And in doing that they will literally destroy what fuels the American Way of Life.

Gas prices going as high as they have in the last couple of years has screwed up our economy. If gas became unvailable to the majority of Americans, what would be born of the resulting chaos? Would we blow each other up???

If that is the MAIN REASON that our soliders, who are our spouses, siblings, and children are being asked to risk their lives... then just say so!

I think that if our way of life could so easily come to a standstill because of conflicts and wars in the mid-east, we need to address that danger just as much as we do global terrorists and dictators abusing basic human rights!