So, what is the implication of the Iraqi election? Does this mean that we're gonna get out any sooner? Is this a feather in GWB's hat?? I saw that even the French were grudglingly complimenting the effort.
Does it mean anything? Positive? We have lost 1300+ lives and I dunno how many wounded. Hopefully, these losses were not in vain.
I know, I know, this is not necessarily a retirement topic, but I expect there are a lot of opinions. And, of course, if we're in Iraq the entire next 4 years, it might affect our taxes/social security/medicare.
A few posts ago, I recommended Fred on Everything columns. Here's one that is applicable to this inquiry.
http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm. It's #257, "War's Other Price."
Fred says: "The years will go by. Iraq will fade into the mist. Wars always do. A generation will rise for whom it will be just history. The dismembered veterans will find first that almost nobody appreciates what they did, then that few even remember it. If—when, many would say—the United States is driven out of Iraq, the soldiers will look back and realize that the whole affair was a fraud. Wars are just wars. They seem important at the time. At any rate, we are told that they are important.
Yet the wounds will remain. Arms do not grow back. For the paralyzed there will never be girlfriends, dancing, rolling in the grass with children. The blind will adapt as best they can. Those with merely a missing leg will count themselves lucky. They will hobble about, managing to lead semi-normal lives, and people will say, “How well he handles it.” An admirable freak. For others it will be less good. A colostomy bag is a sorry companion on a wedding night.
These men will come to hate. It will not be the Iraqis they hate. This we do not talk about"
Is Fred too cynical or is he on target? And just when can we get out?
Does it mean anything? Positive? We have lost 1300+ lives and I dunno how many wounded. Hopefully, these losses were not in vain.
I know, I know, this is not necessarily a retirement topic, but I expect there are a lot of opinions. And, of course, if we're in Iraq the entire next 4 years, it might affect our taxes/social security/medicare.
A few posts ago, I recommended Fred on Everything columns. Here's one that is applicable to this inquiry.
http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm. It's #257, "War's Other Price."
Fred says: "The years will go by. Iraq will fade into the mist. Wars always do. A generation will rise for whom it will be just history. The dismembered veterans will find first that almost nobody appreciates what they did, then that few even remember it. If—when, many would say—the United States is driven out of Iraq, the soldiers will look back and realize that the whole affair was a fraud. Wars are just wars. They seem important at the time. At any rate, we are told that they are important.
Yet the wounds will remain. Arms do not grow back. For the paralyzed there will never be girlfriends, dancing, rolling in the grass with children. The blind will adapt as best they can. Those with merely a missing leg will count themselves lucky. They will hobble about, managing to lead semi-normal lives, and people will say, “How well he handles it.” An admirable freak. For others it will be less good. A colostomy bag is a sorry companion on a wedding night.
These men will come to hate. It will not be the Iraqis they hate. This we do not talk about"
Is Fred too cynical or is he on target? And just when can we get out?
