In the Ranks of Death

I got a call this weekend that I didn't want to hear but that I knew was coming. My son, who'll be 19 in December, called to tell me that he was going to Iraq. He said it in sheepish tones, the way he might have told me, just a year ago, that he had gotten an "F" in math. And I - wordsmith that I am - was at a loss for words. After all, what does a father say to a son who is marching off to war? They didn't cover that one in any of the Operator Guides and Service Manuals that I've surveyed.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Um . . . wow . . . Iraq? . . . um . . . shit! When do you ship out?"

"In about six weeks," ha answered.

"That soon? Wow! Um . . . well . . . will you get any leave first?"

And so it went, I, the father, struggling for words as I struggled to maintain my calm, wanting to be strong for him, knowing that his own studied non-chalance was his attempt to be strong for me. When he hung up, I retreated to my sanctum sanctorum to be alone, to think, to not cry. Furiously smoking cigars, I raged within at the stupidity of the war that I was sending my son into and at the incompetence of the leaders who had started it all in the first place.

I hate the war with Iraq. I believe it was unnecessary, started by our fearless leader - King George II - for personal reasons. The Iraq War is, as one of the members of the McLaughlin Group stated the other night, one of the most blatant coup d'etats ever executed in modern times. King George II, citing Iraq's now legendary Weapons of Mass Destruction and absurdly linking Saddam Hussein with Al Quaieda, ignored his own military and security advisors, blatantly snubbed the entire UN Security Council, and drove the country into a pre-emptive war with a country that posed no realistic threat to the U.S. As Bush's advisors predicted, the results were somewhat less than satisfactory.

U.S. troops rolled into Iraq, quickly defeating its army and deposing Saddam Hussein. After just six weeks of fighting, King George II triumphantly proclaimed that the war was over. Unfortunately, the fighting had only just begun. With no strong central government to hold everything together, the various cantankerous factions within Iraq - Sunis, Shiites, Kurds et al. - began attacking each other and us as they each vied for power and/or autonomy. Meanwhile, the Iraqi army - defeated but not disarmed - melted into the general population only to reappear as insurgents. Finally, to further complicate the situation, we failed to seal Iraq's borders, and thousands of disgruntled Muslim extremists from surrounding countries poured into Iraq,swelling the insurgent's ranks.

As a result, America is embroiled in a quagmire that threatens to make Viet Nam look like a walk in the park. Attacks against both Americans and the Iraqis who collaborate with them increase daily. Large sections of the Iraq are completely under insurgent control and have been declared "no-go zones" by the Americans. The radical Shiite cleric, al Sadr, runs his own army and his own de facto government. We have had limited success persuading and training Iraqis to serve in the police and army. And the rebuilding efforts are constantly hampered, if not outright stopped, by insurgent attacks. And then there's the costs of the war.

We have spent over $200 billion dollars prosecuting the war, and we will likely spend many times that amount before we are done. Over 1,000 American troops have been killed. Almost 13,000 American troops have been dismembered, maimed, severely burned, or mentally disabled. And this doesn't even begin to count the tens of thousand of civilians - Iraqis and foreign contract workers - who have been killed or injured.

By now, it is apparent how I feel about this war. I detest it. On the other hand, I wholeheartedly support our troops. And why shouldn't I. Those who say that you can't oppose the war and at the same time support the troops are idiots. If my child does something that I don't agree with, I can dislike what that child has done without disliking my child. Similarly, if my president starts a war, and I dislike that war, that doesn't mean that I don't support the soldiers who have to go and fight in that war. After all, it's not the men and women who have to do all the killing and dieing who are to blame; rather, the responsibility lies with the Suits in Washington who spend their time sticking pins in maps and pushing toy armies around on table tops, with little, if any, consideration for the human lives they're playing with.

So my son will join the thousands who have already been to Iraq, and I will join the tens of thousands of fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, sons and daughters, who sit at home and wait. And I will support the troops, while I oppose the war. Give the troops all of the armor and weapons and supplies they need to do the job they've been ordered to do. Then bring them all home again with as few casualties as possible.