The late night May 24
headlines on Google say, "Congress passes deadline-free war funding
bill" and "Divided Congress approves Iraq war funds." That will be
120 billion dollars. The war is unpopular to many Americans—some who
have been against it from the very first utterances of President
George Bush that our nation might attack Iraq. And there are those
Americans who have gradually grown to realize the war is wrong.
The Democratic majority and some Republicans in Congress wanted to
pass legislation to begin the end of the war. Bush and his
administration did not budge but rigidly hung onto their strategies,
spinning some of their same old, but questionable reasoning. A
campaign letter arrived on May 23 from Democratic presidential
candidate Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. The bold print
across the face of the envelope says, "Being stubborn is not a
foreign policy."
On May 19, former President Jimmy Carter said in his criticism of
the current President Bush, "We now have endorsed the concept of
pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily,
even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want
to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the
future our security might be endangered." Curiously, Bush's father,
when president, declined to begin a war with Iraq, saying that do so
was too risky and would be futile.
This spring, the truth has surfaced about what happened to Pat
Tillman, the professional football star who gave the game up to
become a soldier, then was killed in Afghanistan and became one of
the Pentagon's poster boys. Later the public was informed that he
had been killed in friendly fire. The truth also has been surfacing
about poster girl Private Jessica Lynch and the story of her rescue
after being captured by insurgents in Iraq. Indeed, much truth has been surfacing in the past
few years about misinformation served up by the administration about
why it forged ahead with its war plans.
A person can't help but think of the Vietnam War and what is known
now (through documentary footage, former Defense Secretary Robert
McNamara’s book, and other sources) about White House conversations
and how President Johnson and his cronies simply did not know how to
admit the war was a mistake and, at the same time, be able to save
face. A person also can't help think of the song lyrics, "Where have
all the flowers gone" and "Where have all the soldiers gone."
On May 19, Army Spc. David Behrle, age 20, died in a bomb explosion
near Bagdad. He had been the president of the Tipton High School
class of 2005 and its commencement speaker. Many other Iowans have
also died in the war, including Army Sgt.Gregory Tull, age 20 of
Pocahontas, who died from a IED explosion in the Al Anbar Province
of Iraq in 2005. His funeral was at the Faith Lutheran Church south
of Rolfe.
According to the web site
www.antiwar.com, the death toll for Americans in Iraq since the
war began on March 19, 2003, is 3,441. The toll since President Bush
claimed “Mission accomplished” on May 1, 2003, is 3,302. The
official number of American wounded is 25,378. However, the
unofficial estimated number of wounded is between 23,000 and
100,000. There have also been deaths of Iraq civilians, military and
insurgency personnel.
The web site
www.iraqbodycount.org estimates that between 64,333 and 70,471
Iraqi civilian deaths have been caused by Coalition military action
as well as military or paramilitary responses to the Coalition
presence (e.g. insurgent and terrorist attacks.)
Billions of dollars were allocated for the war simply in this latest
legislation. But what is the total cost in dollars? What is the cost
in terms of death and other tragedies related to the war in Iraq?
What is the cost in terms of long-term rehabilitation of wounded
soldiers and civilians? What is the cost in terms of long-term
mental health support? And what is the cost in terms of the impact
on the psyche of our nation—or Iraq, other nations, and the world as
a whole?
Chuck Sernett served in the Vietnam War. He grew up on a farm in my
rural neighborhood between Rolfe and Pocahontas. If alive today, he
would be about 55 years old. He survived the war, came back home,
married, had at least one child, and farmed. But then he shot
himself. His death was related to his experiences in Vietnam, and
the government eventually listed Chuck as a casualty of the war. How
many other Vietnam War veterans have been or currently are scarred
physically from wounds or exposure to the likes of Agent Orange? How
many Vietnam veterans have been or are scarred emotionally from the
trauma of the war with repercussions to themselves, their families,
communities, and society?
Already, concerns are surfacing about the length of the tours of
duty that military personnel are serving in Iraq and the lack of
sufficient time between tours. Already, concerns are surfacing about
the inadequacies of medical, including mental health, support that
military personnel are receiving. |
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Photograph of 1980 Rolfe Memorial
Day by Helen D. Gunderson. |
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On this Memorial Day weekend, yes, take
time to remember what you need or wish to remember in relation to
your heritage. Take time to grieve the loss of loved ones whether
they were civilians or soldiers, their deaths were current or
decades ago. Take time to appreciate the efforts of the people in
the Rolfe community (or for that matter, people in other communities
where you live) for maintaining the cemeteries, providing a
ceremony, and/or serving a meal where you can roam, ponder, and
connect with others in this big world with all its complexities and
difficulties.
Also, take time to grieve that our nation is involved in a
pre-emptive war and that the cost is huge in terms of dollars and
lives but also in terms of international esteem. In the end, the
stubborn nature of our administration may be making our nation less
safe from terrorism.
Take time to be thankful because there were those who served,
sacrificed, and/or died in order that we could have some of the
freedoms that exist in our country. But don't swallow the
President and his administration's spin hook-line-and-sinker. Don't
simply look at the green grass, beautiful tombstones, colorful
flowers, and waving flags and feel the glow of a sunshiny day (if
there are no storm clouds) and listen to the high school band play
patriotic music and the students recite the Gettysburg Address and
the Flanders Field poem and hear the color guard fire a
21-gun-salute followed by the bugler playing Taps then have a fine
Maid-Rite meal with homemade apple pie and ice cream and think that
all is OK. All is not OK.
May we seek wisdom and discern how to act upon the truth of that
wisdom. One way to begin is heart-to-heart conversations with other
people and not rely on the corporately-owned media for information.
Another step is that of recognizing the tremendous influence that
the military-industrial complex has over our government and the
benefits that some sectors of that complex derive from our nation
being at war. However, acknowledging the latter factors can be
overwhelming. Perhaps grieving is the most important thing a
concerned person can do on Memorial Day. Light and resourcefulness
do come in the midst of darkness—by encountering and not by denying
our fears, disappointments, and anger—and by being united with other
people in small clusters of community.  Return
to Essays
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