Sunday, September 05, 2004

A Future Wall

Ben Barnes visited the Vietnam Memorial Wall and had a pang of conscience as he read the names of those who died. He came to regret terribly that he had enabled the children of the privileged to blithely escape the danger so others with little or no social status died in their place.

I wonder if Bush & Co. will ever develop sufficient moral character to face such a wall with regret. 1000 American men and women, husbands and wives, sons and daughters sacrificed on the alter of their hubris in an unnecessary war. Perhaps everyone doesn't see it that way now but I am confident they will.

I remember all the spin that came from the official sources about how we were always winning that war and causing the communists terrible losses. And I remember the soldiers (my friends and but-for-the-grace-of-God-and-a-high-lottery-number yours truly) who fought coming home damaged and suffering from the terrible things they had witnessed and even participated in. The truth on the ground was much different that what we read in the newspapers. This war will prove no different.

Kerry understands this intimately. Bush, as he is on so much else, is clueless.

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