Senseless War

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/24/Iraq.main/index.html

Life with its emotions, conflicts, circumstances and how they all intertwine never ceases to amaze me. I have spent the last three days pretty much wallowing in self-pity. I was actually enjoying the feel of it seep between my toes and drip through my fingers. I had begun caking it on me like so much dead sea mud at a spa thinking maybe it would improve my complexion. Then I opened my email this morning.

Throughout my ex-husband's military career we made a plethora of friends with whom, I am happy to say, I continue to associate and correspond. We may not see each other for years and only send a Christmas card and some scattered email, but if we sat down over a glass of wine, it would be as though no time had lapsed from the last time we did the same. It was one such pair from whom I read some dreaded news this morning.

They have a son, Andrew, who is a very talented and charming young man but who couldn't seem to completely focus in college. Eventually he left William and Mary to come home and attend school locally while deciding which avenue in life he wanted to travel. Once that decision was made, entirely by him, he waited until the night before he was due to leave to tell his family that he had enlisted in the Army. Sadly, his unit is one that is a constant in this war in Iraq, specifically in and around Baghdad and they have been taking some pretty big hits in the last two days.

Roni and Dave were watching the news when NBC broadcast a story on the Military Hospital in Baghdad. Nine soldiers from the Stryker Brigade (Andrew's Unit) were being treated for injuries. This unit and, specifically his Company, had been at the heart of fighting in the Sunni neighborhood along Haifa Street. The report that was being aired contained video about this fighting. Later CNN reported that one soldier had been killed and two were wounded. Andrew had told Roni and Dave that when a soldier is injured or killed, the outgoing information is "quarantined", so right now, Roni and Dave are sitting on the pins and needles of worry until they receive some kind of word from our government.

So please, for all the Andrews out there, for all the Roni and Daves back home sick with worry, send your prayers. And don't sit on your laurels feeling sorry for yourself because you are bored at work. Get productive; write letters, go to demonstrations, talk to your friends and associates, volunteer at a local base, visit a veteran's hospital, talk to your congressman and let's figure out how, as a community, nay as a country, we can get our children home! There is no way we can end the war that WE started, but there must be a way we can begin peaceful negotiations.