Talking heads on radio and TV make me so angry sometimes that I'm in danger of throwing something and breaking my contact with wide world outside. Every time I'm in an Airport, I talk with soldiers making their way from one place o the other. I have yet to speak with a soldier who has told me how important this war is to them. That's not to say that there are not those who feel that way, but I have not run into them. They all want to be there for their brothers and sisters in arms, but to the man/woman, each has told me they hate it and don't want to be there.
Yet guys in suits sitting in comfy leather chairs are always saying that our soldiers are proud of Bush and proud to fight this war. Pride in America, pride in our Military is one thing. Pride for the two aforementioned is something I have yet to hear from a soldier I have stood face to face with. And when you read things like this, it bares out what is actually felt in the truth away from cameras, Senators and Congressmen.
In 2007, 121 soldiers committed suicide. That's up 20% over 2006 and includes the time since the oh so successful surge. Now, there may be some that look at that total and think it's a small number. One soldier committing suicide in a foreign country because of a war we shouldn't be in is far too many.
The statistics prepared by the Army's psychiatry consultant also found that "attempted" suicides and "self injuries" were also rising. 2,100 in 2007, 1,500 in 2006.
This is sad, very, very sad. All one has to do is look at the stoic demeanor of the Military men at Monday's "State Of The Union" speech to get an understanding as to how they feel. While elected officials stood and clapped at every applause line given about Iraq and Afghanistan, they sat and did not clap.
While TV, radio and print mediums have moved on to who snubbed who, Mac is back and Romney is a Mormon, Americas kids are still sitting in the middle of a hot box they should have never been sent to in the first place. The war still wages on, and while we're being told how much "the surge" is working by people who have been proven wrong about EVERYTHING else, you can still read (if you look) about American men and women being killed and maimed everyday in Iraq. Along with the rise of the Taliban (because of Iraq) and now the rise of enlisted suicides.
But this story just isn't fun anymore for the media. The economy sucks, people are losing their homes and their jobs. Terrible things to be sure, but let's not forget that there is still a fierce battle raging in countries we shouldn't be in, and our countrymen/women want to come to help "their" families get through the same troubling times "we're" facing here at home.
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