This list keeps getting longer. Six from Louisville Kentucky. Three from Derby Kansas. Two from Bossier City Louisiana. Twelve from my old hometown and its suburbs. 191 from California. 1745 in all. By the time you read this, that number will almost certainly be higher.
And I have a few questions about the list.
How many mothers crumpled inside, hearing the news on the phone? How many fathers felt the stab in the gut, the cramp of grief in the back of the neck? How many pillowcases soaked with tears and snot?
How many warm Saturday afternoons with one less person around the grill? How many future miles not walked with dogs, future boxes of popcorn not fetched for daughters who went ahead to find seats before the movie starts?
How many hours spent falling into the hole in the center of your heart? How many hours spent wondering why your life is over so young, a widow at 23?
How many of the dead are not listed here?
I know the answers to some of these questions, but I find myself needing to ask them anyway. I know that some of the answers will be different for each name, but I need to ask them anyway. Did they make their peace with themselves? Did they suffer? Did they cry? Did they know what hit them? Were their last thoughts of their lovers? Their mothers? Their children?
Were they writers? Mechanics? Bakers? Students, teachers, dropouts, dyslexics, National Merit Finalists, gardeners, truck drivers, athletes, klutzes, saints or assholes?
Did they find grace and humanity in the people of Iraq? Did they cast their eyes on the battered landscape and still find beauty in it? Were they fearful? Did the terror sour into hatred, resentment?
Did they vote?
Would they vote differently now?
Did they know they were fighting for a lie?
Is there an American with a life worth more than any one of these? The President who lied with a straight face, or the advisors who coached him in the lies? The strutting, snide pundits? The snarling radio hosts? The propagandists and the preeners? The hooting cowards on their warblogs? The complacent? The spineless loyal opposition? The people on the list died in agony, many of them, in fear and anguish and remorse. When their time comes – and may that day be long off – are there any in the political class who deserve a death one mite more pleasant than the people on the list deserved?
I certainly recommend this for everyones thoughts not only today but every day…..
Horrendous thoughts. Sad thoughts. leaves saddness and hurt in the heart. Will there be another play written about “pieces of my heart”? Can we even beging to understand let alone feel for these emotions. Will they ever feel closure to this heartache?
Thank you, Chris. Very powerful.
And I’m sick with worry about the team lost in the mountains of Afghanistan, altho CNN says that one of the four has been rescued. So where are the other three? Does the Taliban have one?
Also: The Egyptian envoy who was just kidnapped has already been killed by his captors. A family in Egypt is surely devastated.
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Arlington cemetery
CNN.com honors US service men and women who paid so dearly –
There have been 1,928 coalition troop deaths
● 1,741 Americans
● 89 Britons
● 25 Italians
● 18 Ukrainians
● 17 Poles
● 13 Bulgarians
● 11 Spaniards
one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, one Kazakh, one Latvian, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, two Thai in the war in Iraq as of June 28, 2005.
(Graphical breakdown of casualties – CNN.com)
The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose families have been notified of their deaths by each country’s government. At least 13,190 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. The Pentagon does not report the number of non-hostile wounded.
For a historical look at U.S. war casualties, click here – CNN.com.
Casualties in the war in Afghanistan – Enduring Freedom
JFK Memorial
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= 1953 .. don’t know if the the count for Afghanistan includes the 16 we just lost this week or not…
And I can’t even quanitfy the havoc we have wreaked on so many Afghani and Iraqi families….
What a waste, what a horrible, brutal, STUPID waste.
but wives, husbands and children. How many children will think of their parent as just a medal in a box? Or a triangular flag in the closet?
And what about the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. How many children will pay the price of having a parent come home with major mental issues? This is something that can easily be passed down to the next generation and was after the Vietnam war.