PICKING FIGHTS WITH PEACEMAKERS
He said, "Let me ask you something. Did he enlist? Then he got what he deserved.”
This question, posed during PPJ’s recent peace demonstration, was cruel and inappropriate to the widow of an American veteran. It was posed as if enlistment then justifies the death of a husband and father in an illegal war of aggression. Yet this is what our nation and our discourse has been reduced to: spit out soundbites and angry rejoinders.
It’s not just the 3,875 officially acknowledged dead Americans, although that is sad enough. USA Today reports the Pentagon has not classified as wounded some 20,000 soldiers with brain injuries. A November 13, 2007 report from CBS News tells us that in 2005 alone, in just 45 states reporting, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who had served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year. Just adding that one year, 2005, to the current death toll puts the cost of this aggression at over 10,000 American soldiers. Add in the 30,327 officially wounded and tell us the cost of “freedom” in Iraq is worth it. We get 60,458 young American lives ruined forever, either through untimely death, brain injury, suicide or physical disability.
St Augustine People for Peace and Justice apologizes to any who have been offended by our presence, our signs and our infrequent responses to the obscene insults and baiting that we endure every first and third Saturday at the Plaza de Constitucion. We do not look for apologies from the countless individuals who once supported or still support this immoral illegal occupation. They are hurt, defensive and confused and strike out at us for relief. However, we will never apologize for our belief that all war is wrong and this “war” in particular is a grievous mistake, based on lies and twisted intelligence, which is killing our young people and innocent civilians while enriching the cronies of the Bush administration.
But we will always welcome reasoned dissent and try to find common ground. We believe it is the only way to hold this nation together.
This question, posed during PPJ’s recent peace demonstration, was cruel and inappropriate to the widow of an American veteran. It was posed as if enlistment then justifies the death of a husband and father in an illegal war of aggression. Yet this is what our nation and our discourse has been reduced to: spit out soundbites and angry rejoinders.
It’s not just the 3,875 officially acknowledged dead Americans, although that is sad enough. USA Today reports the Pentagon has not classified as wounded some 20,000 soldiers with brain injuries. A November 13, 2007 report from CBS News tells us that in 2005 alone, in just 45 states reporting, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who had served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year. Just adding that one year, 2005, to the current death toll puts the cost of this aggression at over 10,000 American soldiers. Add in the 30,327 officially wounded and tell us the cost of “freedom” in Iraq is worth it. We get 60,458 young American lives ruined forever, either through untimely death, brain injury, suicide or physical disability.
St Augustine People for Peace and Justice apologizes to any who have been offended by our presence, our signs and our infrequent responses to the obscene insults and baiting that we endure every first and third Saturday at the Plaza de Constitucion. We do not look for apologies from the countless individuals who once supported or still support this immoral illegal occupation. They are hurt, defensive and confused and strike out at us for relief. However, we will never apologize for our belief that all war is wrong and this “war” in particular is a grievous mistake, based on lies and twisted intelligence, which is killing our young people and innocent civilians while enriching the cronies of the Bush administration.
But we will always welcome reasoned dissent and try to find common ground. We believe it is the only way to hold this nation together.
Labels: cost of war, dissent, iraq, peace
posted by Mary at 6:38 AM
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