The True Cost

The war in Iraq has been going on for over 3 years now. The war that President Bush claimed to have won about 3 weeks after it started, still wages on. To date, 2396 US military personnel have died in this war. Another 17,381 US personnel have been injured.
Actual month by month statistics.

These are numbers that don't get a lot of press these days. We'll hear about the latest offensive tactics, but we don't hear these figures. 2396 dead. 17,381 injured. And these numbers are just for the US soldiers. What about the other countries that are involved? I'm sure the numbers are staggering , but you'll never see them all in one place, because the powers that be don't want us thinking on those terms. We need to be thinking about how we are ridding the world of the evil doer who ran Iraq, not about how our soldiers won't be coming home. We need to be thinking about how we can jam our own "democratic" political views down the Iraqis throats, not about how many of our wounded soldiers will have trouble adjusting to life back here in the states.
Why is "our way" the right way? I've heard most of the arguments before, & a majority of them make no sense at all except to the people who make them. Maybe we need to allow things to settle on their own, without our "democratic influence" . Perhaps Iraq would be better off if we didn't try to dictate how things should be.
Growth of an independent country requires lots of things to make it work, many of which I couldn't even begin to put in writing because they are ideas that need to be molded to each unique situation. There is no one size fits all when it comes to independence. I believe if you look back in our own history, you'll see this to be true on many aspects.
In closing, I fully respect the fantastic job our military personnel are doing in Iraq and all over the world. I admire their dedication to their job and our country and in no way am I writing this to put them down or take away from the bravery they are showing in the line of fire. I'm just not a big believer in the policy makers who basically fabricated a majority of the reasons for us to be involved in the first place. Lets end the needless death..

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

I borrowed the above lyrics from an artist that some of you might not have expected to hear such things from. The song is from 1991 , its called "Civil War" , by Guns and Roses. Check out the song if you haven't already heard it. Have a peaceful night.

Hawk