Far East Cynic

The forgotten war….and the forgotten people

Not that any Americans might have noticed this week, but the 2000th American died in the War in Afghanistan this week. I mean,  its hard to pay attention to the  tragic sacrifice of brave young men-when there are such meaningful issues like "what is real rape?" to argue about, after all.

The man's name was Specialist James A. Justice. He was from Grover NC and he was assigned to the 503rd Regiment, 173rd Airborne Combat Brigade. He was 21 years old. He died of injuries suffered during a small arms fire fight in Afghanistan.

Now I have made my opposition to America's endless war on terror pretty evident over the years. I am not proposing to re-hash that here. But I do want to ask just one simple question: "Why is no one in this election discussing the sacrifice this and 1999 other Americans made-and what it will it take to stop 1000 more Americans from losing their lives in the region North of the Khyber Pass?"

After all 98% of Americans will never know what it was like to experience the danger he did. The country does not ask it from them-and so they can live lives of blessed ignorance that there are a relatively small group of Americans being put at risk every day-for an Afghan government and an Afghan people that have yet to prove they are worthy of the sacrifice.

This a subject more important than silly arguments about abortion and rape. We dishonor these brave folks sacrifice if we don't understand why they were where they were-and what it will take to bring the rest of the US forces home. As soon as possible.

The country needs to be talking about the fact that 2000 Americans have died in this far away land. When will we?

  1. If I ran things, I would simply tell Karzi that for every US servicmember killed by an Afghani we are supposed to be training, one acre of opium fields will be burned.  Hit him in his wallet, and he will somehow find a way to stop these killings.