Iraq war and another deployment changes everything for family

By Debbie Boen | September 14, 2007 |

Over the weekend I met the most wonderful couple. They had a new baby and had a lot of great ideas about nutrition and similar interests in the outdoors. He’s going back to Iraq in January.

“Oh, then you’ve got a little time,” I said.

What a stupid thing to say. It really eats me up to meet someone as neat as that and know that we (I) am sending them back into a war. Bush said that he wants permanent bases in Iraq.

He has no intention of leaving. We’re paying over $450,728,500,000 (I can’t even say that amount) on Bush’s war. Some 71,720 to 78,296 civilians have been killed; how to picture that? Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City filled to the max (Google it).

And we blame the Iraqis for having a civil war. Who wants them to be in a civil war? Mr. Bush does. Stay the course. Our soldiers dead, 3,774 (the bloodiest summer yet) and 27,767 wounded.

But all of them are wounded. You can’t go occupy a country with 71,000 people dead and how many injured and not be wounded by that. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Politics | 4 Comments

Irate reader, soldier chastises as “un-American” the voice of opposition

By Christine Anne Piesyk | September 14, 2007 |

I received an irate e-mail for my views on September 11, the war in Iraq and Bush’s America as a whole. I was called unpatriotic for not flag-waving Bush’s war. I was told to “grow up.” Sorry, but I did that the first time I buried a friend killed in Vietnam. He was 19.

But Iraq is not about Vietnam, and not really about September 11th; that was just the excuse that triggered a rush to war in oil-rich country.

Here’s the letter:

“Wow, did you really write that in the Clarksville Voice? If so, you really should be ashamed of yourself, and consider renouncing your American Citizenship (since you seem to be so angry and ashamed of the actions we have taken to prevent another attack) and go live among those “innocents being slaughtered” you so fondly speak of.

“I personally remember everything about that awful Tuesday morning six years ago. I was awake, but still in bed in my apartment in Nashville, TN; when one of my friends and my Dad called nearly simultaneously to alert me about this terrible “accident” at the World Trade Center. I immediately turned on Fox News and within seconds, the second plane hit the other tower, then news of the Pentagon being attacked, and then ANOTHER plane going down en route to the White House.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics | 6 Comments