Soldier mom refuses to deploy to Afghanistan

According to the Associated Press this morning, a 21 year old soldier mom refuses deployment to Afghanistan. There was no one to take care of her infant. She has been arrested and confined to base pending investigation. That story is here.

According to the Washington Post the Army is forming a panel under the direction of the Chief of Staff to see if warning signs were missed that would have indicated the potential murderous actions of Major Nidal Hasan, M.D. U.S. Army. That story is here.

In other news reported in the Washington Post, thirteen bullet ridden bodies of a Sunni politican and his relatives and friends were found outside of Baghdad. This is the end result, the way of life, we have left in Iraq after all these years of war.

After all the money, the Iraqi and American deaths and maimings, the agony of the war for all of us concerned, this is what we have to show for it. We now have execution style slayings as a political statement.

We would have been better off flushing the money down the toilet. It would have made more sense to simply execute the American soldiers on the tarmac here before they got onto the plane to Iraq. It would have been a cleaner situation for all concerned and more humane.

What in the name of all reason did we accomplish? What was the goal? What has been the outcome?

The Iraqis refuse to even trade with us. What have we gained by this Crusade that the Bushites insisted was righteous and in our best interests? What were we thinking?

What in the name of logic, reason and all good common sense have we done? This is the outcome?

This is what we have spent over $850 billion dollars to achieve? This is what cost roughly 5,100 American lives to obtain? This is what we paid for in mental and physical wounds that number in the hundreds of thousands among our troops? It would be even more destruction if we take into account their families and the broken lives these wars caused among them.

Somebody just has to tell me why we did this. What was the goal? Did we not see this coming? Are these young Americans that expendable to us?

After all they are only service men and women. Its not like they count for anything. Is that what we were thinking?

From Politics Daily, here is an article on the human price of unending war for the 10th Mountain Division soldiers and their loved ones. Psychologists are now running out of options for these people. They are beyond stressed now. We may very well be creating a lifetime set of psychotic behaviors due to our national abuse of these young soldiers and their families.

As an American veteran, let me ask you.  How do you feel about that?

From today’s New York Times we have an article penned by a returning soldier concerning his fight to keep his marriage going amid deployments and his PTSD. That story is here.

I vocally opposed these wars from day one. I never saw the sense in them. But you know what? I did not do enough to stop them.

I did not contact enough congressmen, I did not make my opinions known to the right people. I let these young soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines down. I did not do all that I could do to stop this madness.

I can see that now.

I am not innocent here. I have to take my share of responsibility for the abuse we have foisted on these young Americans for purposes that are still unclear to me. I have to raise my hand when they ask the question, "Who is responsible for doing this to me?"

This was a knee jerk reaction set of wars. This was not thought out properly. We truly have found the enemy and we are grappling with him now. And that enemy is us. That much is clear now.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)