Losses never forgotten, grief never outlived
By PAT MURPHY
Whether it?s President Bush?s estimate that U.S. troops will be in Iraq for five years or Sen. John McCain?s forecast--10 to 20 years--hundreds, maybe thousands, more American families are certain to see the heart-stopping arrival of military escorts to inform them a son, father, daughter or mother has died in Iraq.
At that moment begins a lifetime of dealing with a loss never forgotten, grief never overcome, lives forever changed without the son who wanted to be farmer, a daughter who wanted to teach, a father who wanted to return to work as a mechanic, a mother who wanted to grow old with her children.
And always the question: did they really die for something worthwhile, as politicians say they did?
The warriors who went to Iraq had no choice. They followed orders. They also were patriots. But while those left behind have the pride of knowing their fallen loved ones served nobly, doubts remain about the worthwhileness of their duty.
Even now, some 60 years after World War II, 50 years after the Korean War and 30 years after Vietnam, the pain of grief and loss return as the remains of men missing all this time are discovered and returned to families. Grown children who lost fathers wonder anew what they missed as children without their fathers.
Iraq, like Vietnam, differs vastly from World War II and Korea. The United States and South Korea were attacked. Vietnam and Iraq were wars of choice by U.S. presidents.
Both were fought on grounds that later were unmasked as counterfeit--one, over a nonexistent attack on a U.S. destroyer, the other over non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
Because President Lyndon Johnson vowed to aides he refused to be the first U.S. president to lose a war, he persisted, stubbornly believing he could prevent South Vietnam from falling to the communist North.
The costs--47,393 U.S. combat deaths, 153,363 wounded.
Vietnam went communist anyway. Johnson lost the war.
Now the count is just over 1,000 military deaths in Iraq, more than 7,000 wounded.
With more--who knows how many?--yet to come, joining the 650,604 U.S. battle dead in wars since the Revolutionary War.
And a new generation of dead from Iraq and Afghanistan for military cemeteries, a new generation in Veterans hospitals, a new generation of legless, armless veterans.
And more families darkened by terrible loss and left empty by a void.
And, yes, another president obsessed with forcing an evil nation into democracy, no matter the cost in U.S. troops or national treasure, and the risk of a doubtful outcome.
