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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.

You can’t leave home the third time, missing another year out of your life, and not be wounded by that; those left behind not knowing if you will come back and if you’ll be the same person when you do.

What news am I supposed to swallow about our great progress in Iraq? Make me believe it’s a good war cause I’ve got to be able to live with myself.

This letter was originally submitted to and published by the Leaf Chronicle, September 12, 2007.

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About Debbie Boen

Debbie and her family moved to Clarksville slightly after the tornado of 1999. Debbie founded the group, Clarksville Freethinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties, in 2004. She participated in Gathering to Save Our Democracy, a group dedicated to obtaining free and verifiable elections in Tennessee. She has supported groups including the NAACP, Nashville Peace Coalition, PFLAG, Friends of Dunbar Cave and the Mountain Top Removal Series of Films and speakers. She participated as an artist in the ARTZ gallery group in Clarksville and won Best of Show, First and 2 Second Place awards for four of her sculptures. She won a voter's choice award for a performance at the Roxy Regional Theatre. She is a wife, mother and cancer survivor. She is always amazed at the capabilities of the human spirit, and the wisdom to find humor when there is none.

Email: buginthefire@bellsouth.net

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Deployment, Family, Iraq

3 Responses to “Iraq war and another deployment changes everything for family”

Debbie Boen Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 8:14 am

Thanks for posting this in here, Christine.

Debbie Boen Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 8:49 am

The following letter was posted on the Leaf Chronicle blog site in response to several anti-soldier, pro Bush comments also posted. Reprinted with permission from the writer.

Wow, really great support of the troops here!

They signed up for it,

don’t question Bush-his job is so hard,

The army spends a lot of money on family aid for the troops,

let’s bring in the draft!

We have to defeat Hitlers.

The troops didn’t sign up to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. If you’re going to go to war, you should question the authorities who want that, it’s darn important. If you rather worship Bush than support your troops…why because Bush says he’s religious? Because he hates baby killers and gays and that’s enough for you to worship him? Let’s weigh the lives taken, the lives injured (here and in Iraq), the country devastated against your willingness to question authority. You lose. You won’t even drag yourself to the TV, turn off the Fox news, and watch something that tells the truth. Hey baby, we are Hitler. We are the one invading innocent countries (Iran is next). Please remove your head from butt. A draft is such a great idea. Then can we say that we didn’t want this war?

PLEASE slap a title on me so you can dehumanize my thinking. I’m a “liberal” and therefore you can ignore me. You know how those “liberals” have their agendas. And all they want to do is slam Bush.

Here’s two movies you don’t want to watch: The Ground Truth, Maxed Out. That’s just a start.

Oh yes, the Army spending a lot on families? I wonder if they cover sex addictions and the rapes that have been happening to our troops from our troops and how to deal with daddy when he’s always pushing down rage.

Maybe you should meet some of the people who help the soldiers when they come back. Maybe your eyes would open a little.
I’m pretty sick of your bleating.

Debbie Boen Says:
September 18th, 2007 at 9:17 am

And they won’t sit down and shut up.

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