Flew back from LA yesterday and upon arriving
at the airport in Madison there was an entire
family standing at Arrivals with big signs to
welcome a marine coming off active service in Iraq.
After the marine had been greeted and kissed and
cuddled and kissed and cuddled again and again
the family group began to move towards the luggage
carousel. The young marine (he must have been
all of nineteen years old) with his father lagged
behind the rest and when they were alone the father
grabbed his son to his chest and without saying
a word just held him there like that without saying a word.
They were just standing in the middle of Dane
County Airport clinging to one another as if their life
depended on it and I can't begin to describe
how moving a scene it was to observe.
In that one embrace was all the relief and pride,all
the nights of anguish and anxiety, all the fear and dread
that must overwhelm a family when one of their
loved ones is stuck in a war zone and manages to make it
home alive. I just couldn't help thinking
about the 1100 boys and girls who didn't make it.
And then I started to think about the other thousands
of soldiers who have come home with limbs blown off
or their minds in tatters. And then
I thought about the Bush administration trying to cut combat pay and
veterans benefits and I felt like weeping.
Sometimes I get so completely overwhelmed by the fact that
regardless of the injustices I witness I am so
utterly impotent. It makes me furious.
For example it was confirmed......not that any
of us were needing this official confirmation anyway but it was
officially confirmed that there were absolutely
NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ.
So could someone please tell me why the US and
my own country of the UK can possibly continue to
morally justify their actions by invading Iraq
and causing untold destruction and chaos to say nothing
of causing the thousands of deaths of Iraqi men,
women and children.
It just shames me.
The whole debacle makes me feel so utterly ashamed.
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