I clipped Ruth Fremson's image of an Iraqi woman cradling her dead husband's head in her hands the day it ran in the New York Times. I remember it as being shortly before the war was official, but after it was almost certain to be. I placed it on the fridge in line of sight from where I sit and drink my morning coffee. I promised myself to keep it there until it was all over; as a reminder of what war is. Of what is lost. Of what can never be regained.
Five years later it remains where I first placed it.
March 19th will be the fifth anniversary of America's war in Iraq.
Five years too many.
3 comments:
I should probably look it up, but I'm quite sure that this war has lasted longer than World War II did.
That said, one thing that doesn't get nearly enough attention (as if most things about this debacle haven't been ignored!) are the number wounded soldiers. I think that when most people think of "wounded," they think of a bullet in the leg or shoulder, when in actuality, it's lost limbs, massive head injuries and the like. And, of course, the emotional distress that can't actually be measured until it shows up years later.
How it is that anybody... anybody can continue to support this disaster of a decision by this disaster of a president, is completely beyond me.
amen.
Patrick: it's still a little shorter than WWII (5 1/2 years), but the US has been in it for longer.
On the other hand, WWII was continous major fighting on multiple fronts, while this is assymetric "low-intensity" (so to speak) civil war. So it's not really comparable.
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