The headline on Page 2A of Monday's edition of the Independent still bothers me. Not that I was offended, but that it stirred conflicted feelings in me.
It was over an Associated Press about the fifth anniversary of the start of the war on terror, and it read "U.S. nears 4,000 dead in Iraq with war less in public eye."
I read that piece a couple days after watching an ABC-TV news report on the same topic: U.S. soldiers in Iraq fear they are becoming forgotten by their countrymen, people now more consumed by the economy and presidential races. The only ones, one soldier said, who it seems care about them anymore are friends and family.
The rest of the country has moved on to other business.
No matter your views of the war, that's kind of disheartening: We still have tens of thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them putting their lives on the line almost daily. Has the war become such a routine piece of news, have we tired of it after five years, that continued loss of life just slips past us like another line on the CNN screen crawl?
I hope not.
Not after hundreds of local National Guard soldiers spent nearly a year in Iraq. Not after other local Guard soldiers went with the 1st Combat Brigade of 2,700 troops for a nearly two-year deployment.
Not after many other soldiers in regular branches of the military continue to serve.
And, of course, not after this area gave up two of its own — 1st Lt. Jason Timmerman and 1st Sgt. Matthew Kahler — plus many others who were wounded.
Not that I am soaked in patriotic wrappings today. I greatly admire the service of the troops, but I don’t greatly admire their commander in chief.
I have long had issues with the war, and the way it's been conducted. President Bush's insistence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction quickly was proven false and was transplanted with the similarly weak justification that we were going to bring democracy to Iraq — there is barely a functioning government.
The terrorists who struck us on 9/11 were largely Saudi Arabians based in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Not Iraq. Yet, our invasion of Iraq has opened the door for insurgents and terrorists to flourish there. And after initially hitting Afghanistan hard, we have not done well there lately, either. The Taliban keeps creeping back into control, and the drug trade is, well, out of control.
Only recently have we begun to strike the remote regions of Pakistan, where many terrorists — and probably Osama bin Laden — have regrouped. Pakistan, supposedly one of our allies, is probably one of the biggest harborers of our enemies.
There's also the human rights aspect of apparent torture of detainees, especially waterboarding — the simulated drowning act the CIA and other U.S. agencies have used to try to pry information. The Geneva Convention defines the act as torture, the U.S. attorney general says that under current American law it's probably illegal, and the Army Field Manual itself says its forbidden. Yet, the president vetoed a bill that would have banned waterboarding.
Flaws a-plenty.
And there are more on the homefront, especially in terms of health care and mental health care for returning veterans. Several problems were exposed in both areas, and remain issues the country has to resolve. And this is another reason I don’t want us to forget: If soldiers are putting themselves in harm's way for us, we owe them proper care upon their return.
Yeah, I know the economy is hurting at a major-league level. The mortgage situation is rotten, grocery prices are tough on the average family, and gas prices probably will near $4 a gallon.
Those are everyday concerns for all of us.
But do they mean we should take the war on terror and those who fight it as after-thoughts now? An entangled nuisance to be conveniently pushed to the background?
I hope not. Minnesota will be sending another 800 Guard troops to Fort Sill, Okla., in May for training before they deploy to Iraq.
Even though many want it over and many, including me, question it, the war goes on.
