Just a thought...

Today at work, I was listening to the news and it was as depressing as usual. 12 GIs died in a helicopter crash in Iraq. Several more American's were killed in an attack of a military compound in Iraq that was carried out in broad daylight. Numerous Iraqi civilians have been killed or wounded in the last several days as the fighting and bombings escalate even further out of control. (The situation continues to NOT be a civil war...) On and on it goes, just getting sadder and more depressing with each passing minute. The number of soldiers killed in Iraq now totals more than 3,000. My mom lives in a town with a smaller population than that.

Meanwhile, at work, the commercial break comes on and I hear the same old bitching from customers and co-workers. Lately, its taxes and the strange cold snap we've been suffering through. Hardly anyone talks about the war our country continues to fight. If you hear someone talk about it, it has more to do with whether or not they support the president or if they think the dems are cut and runners. No one really seems to be thinking about the fact that every minute we sit here, obliviously living our lives, there is another 18 year old fresh out of high school carrying his M16 into danger for reasons none of us can agree on.

If we do stop and think about the war, it's in the most general and meaningless terms. We complain that Bush lied, or remind our neighbors that Saddam was a bad man. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the same two stupid lines repeated in some form or other. "We can't leave Iraq till we've cleaned it up." "We need to cut our losses and get the heck out of that place." What do either of those statements even mean? Do the people spouting them even know? Do they have any clue about the true situation?

Where is the guilt? Where is the understanding that we allowed our country to go to war against another country? Where is the knowledge that literally hundreds of thousands of people are dead from a war that we don't know why we're fighting?

Where is the god damned guilt?