A Father’s Torment

Posted by James Bowery on Saturday, 30 December 2006 10:02.

My previous post on a bit of Falluja ground truth now has a follow-up. I was able to speak to the father of the US soldier who is in harm’s way and it was not pleasant seeing an otherwise very strong 50-something man virtually break down before me. He is resigning himself to the loss of his son and it is visibly aging him (we have been acquainted for a few years now). He going through slow torture accepting the loss of his still living son due to the fact that the powers that be cannot withdraw from Iraq without precipitating chaos and the fact that they cannot accept chaos as the outcome. He told me one of the main purposes of his son’s presence is to keep watch on the Iraqi soldiers because they are so corrupt they cannot be trusted to keep insurgents from buying their way through blockades—and the insurgents have no shortage of money. The “Iraqi people” are de facto a “nation” of mercenaries bringing home the bacon (well maybe not bacon) to their primary local loyalties—not the kind of force upon which you can build a nation.

How long before men like this decide, with their sons who may have been forced by economic circumstances to join the military, it is time to pull the plug on the government before they lose more of their sons down that hell hole of a war?

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Comments:

Posted by baath brute on Sat, 30 Dec 2006 12:17 | #

“How long before men like this decide, with their sons who may have been forced by economic circumstances to join the military, it is time to pull the plug on the government before they lose more of their sons down that hell hole of a war?”

The current leaders of America are none too bright and will not understand the precedent they set (or should we say, reset - as with Nuremberg) with Saddam’s execution.

If you have two leaders, both guilty of war crimes, and if the leader of the stronger nation is able to force the trial, conviction and execution of the leader of the weaker nation, then what happens when the stronger nation loses its rank of preeminince and is replaced by another power?

There are many leaders who should hope that they don’t outlive America’s superpower status, and that the Chinese overlords of tomorrow won’t wish to conduct war crimes trials of their own, to satisfy the Islamic nations under their control.

Thus, support for “immigration reform” is profoundly self-destructive for certain politicians, as it may hasten the demise of American power, and bring that demise within their own lifetime (particularly if they mirror Gerald Ford’s lifespan).

Posted by James Bowery on Sat, 30 Dec 2006 14:07 | #

<a >Self destructive behavior does have an evolutionary basis if the “self” being destroyed is merely a vehicle for the replicators (usually genes) controlling the “self”</a>.

Posted by Mark on Sat, 30 Dec 2006 16:55 | #

What’s so special about “building a nation”? The Iraqis (and everyone else) would be better off without one. Your friend did a poor job being a father if he allowed his son to get brainwashed into patriotism.

Posted by James Bowery on Sat, 30 Dec 2006 19:56 | #

I don’t think it was fundamentally patriotism. Like so many young men,his son pursued what was the best route open, in the post-Viet Nam, pre 9/11/2001 world, to the formerly middle-class young white heterosexual men in the United States: military service. You seem to forget that they are being herded into the military by the systematic removal of other options for supporting a family.