This Weekend, I met an American.
He was about 45 years old, had a family and kids, and a good civilian job. He is also a Reserve officer who lost his leg in Iraq as a Special Forces officer (working in Civil Affairs).
He had a great attitude, and was out exercising on his stump. The part that was amazing was that we met during trainup for a potential deployment to Afghanistan. He is planning on being part of the training team for the Afghan National Army.
I don't know if ultimately he will go, but the fact that a man with a good job, great family, and who had more than paid the price wants to do more makes me wonder why in a country of 300 million people, we are in a position where a man with a missing leg is on the list to return, and so many of us have done nothing.
Where is the rest of America?
posted by Jrudkis @ 10:10 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
There is no question that the guy you met is very admirable. But regarding the rest of America, is it possible that doing nothing is a defensible course if one HONESTLY and with good reason believes that the cause is not worthwhile? I would guess that we'd have plenty of people to serve in Afghanistan had we not gone into Iraq.
I think doing nothing is a defensible course only if you believe that America will be better off if we lose the wars. I think you can honestly believe that American Foreign policy will be less beligerant and Americans will be safer if we lose.
If you think that we will be better off with a victory, than I don't think you can sit back and hope for victory while doing nothing to secure it.
It's a bit of a conundrum for those who opposed the war before it started. You may believe that winning is better than losing, but that not starting it in the first place would have been better than either. I guess you could also look at the degree to which we would be better off in victory versus the level of sacrifice you would be willing to make.
Just about everyone should be willing to send a few packs of baby wipes over for the troops, even if he or she thinks we'd be better off losing. For anyone who does think we'd be better off losing, doing nothing may not be the best thing either. In that case, I would think you should be fighting to bring the troops home, unless you believe the loss has to be particularly painful to have benefit.
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