Memorial Day thoughts on troops — and war

Since my last post, I’ve been unable to write. It isn’t that I have nothing to say (that’s hardly ever true), but my thoughts are swirling… unfocused, and what follows here is a bit of a jumble. Sorry.
Politics has a way of bringing out the worst in people, and I’ve read some really ugly stuff this weekend about the troops, and also about folks who don’t agree with the current war.
All of it hurts to read, and all of it is off-target on this day.
Today is Memorial Day – a national holiday set aside to officially honor and remember those who served, and those who died, at the behest of our country. It’s not a day for petty politics about current events.
The biggest reason Polimom is a mess is that my personal memories and losses stem from both Vietnam and Iraq — wars that have combined to affect my family, and especially my daughter (AC), in a very real way. She lost both her father and her grandfather in the last couple of years, one due to Iraq, and the other to Vietnam.
There’s a very real, and personal, reason I have been calling out the effects of war on our sons and daughters.
So — Polimom is fully engulfed in the emotions surrounding our troops. I understand at the most profound level how dangerous it is to these men and women, and those who love them, when we merge the war with the person.
People are questioning Murtha’s timing, and many feel that he has politicized the incident to further an anti-war agenda. That may well be true. However, there was never going to be a “good” time to learn about Haditha.
Americans need to know what’s happening, and the honor we extend to those who fight, and sometimes die, should factor in the enormous personal and emotional strength of the tens of thousands of our men and women who have been able to stay above what Marines in Haditha reportedly did.
Nor can we simply point at Murtha as the sole source of divisive or difficult questions of national honor. There are many who, in their support for the war, pounce on every murmer of dissent as “anti-Americanism”. Such rhetoric is also damaging — but far more insidious. Equating disagreement with the policies in Iraq with a lack of support for our troops is a false parallel.
The Americans serving in our military do not deserve to be targeted or used by people who disagree with or support the war.
Both sides are doing it. Both sides are wrong.
War has always been hideous, and Iraq is not exceptional in terms of violence, death, and loss. Today’s editorial in the Washington Post reminds us of this, and includes this:

The questions that dogged the Greeks then are questions that divide us still: of the necessity of one war or another, and the wisdom of pursuing it. […]
What ought to be unquestioned among us is the honor due those who have little to say about the rightness of a war but who take on the duty of fighting it.

I hope that sometime today, between barbecues and parties, you’ll take some time to reflect on the men and women who are serving, as well as those who have gone before them.
Honor for these folks should be unquestioned. Especially today.