If you’ve noticed a scarcity of posts these last few days it’s because I was attending a funeral for my Uncle (who I wrote about here) just outside of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hook up with BooMan and the Mighty Finn (who I hear is teething — welcome to parenthood Boo) but perhaps soon.
I did meet my 1st Cousin’s wife’s mother however, a grand woman in her 8o’s who still regularly attends anti-war rallies. Sometimes the peace movement has been forgotten since the Democrats took control of Congress, and in many respects that has been a great loss for our country.
I know that every week there are still valiant and dutiful individuals like this outstanding woman who make use of their freedoms and rights to continue what to many may be considered a Quixotic quest: to make Americans realize that we are still fighting futile and wasteful wars in the Middle East that in my humble opinion do nothing to boost our national security or enhance the safety, security and freedom of the people living in the Middle East.
These wars may benefit the war profiteers and the (i.e., KBR, Blackwater and all its affiliated companies and the oil giants now benefiting from pumping Iraqi crude oil)but for Joe Average Citizen they offer nothing except perhaps a chance to vent manufactured right wing rage and frustration against people who for the most part had little to do with the 9/11 attacks nine years ago.
As my Uncle who fought and suffered greatly in the Battle of the Bulge once remarked in a self-revealing moment of understatement, “War isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” He was speaking about the horrors of a war that at least ended the Nazi Holocaust, the “Good War.” Obviously he understood that no war is ever good.
I worry about what the future consequences to our nation will be from our unnecessary wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. So many dead. So many wounded, physically and psychologically. So much hate engendered against our country and for what ultimate purpose? To make Tom Friedman (and many others like him) feel better about their manliness?
If you can, stop for a moment today and consider contributing time and/or money if you can to those organizations that continue the struggle to end our absurd and useless overseas wars of aggression. “Blessed be the Peacemakers” said Jesus. Well, they and we need more than blessings. Please help of you can.
War only breeds more hate and more wars. Are children will be living with the consequences of the actions our leaders chose to take after 9/11 for decades to come. No one forced them to act as they did. It is important that we continue to protest and lobby our representatives to end these wasteful and in my mind activities. These wars cost us and the people whose countries we invaded far more than anyone can ever truly assess in lives or money.
Time for us to find the way to bring them to an end.
