Jun 21, 2006, 11:27

Can this war get any more disturbing?

Now, in the wake of stories where U.S. marines massacred entire families of Iraqis, including babies, women, and the elderly, our soldiers are being taught "core values." Never mind that we invaded this country three years ago with our bombs and missiles and guns. Never mind that we kicked down people’s doors at 3:00 a.m., terrorizing families, hauling off fathers and sons (yet to be proven as bad guys) into prison to languish with no legal process. Never mind that we’ve tortured and maimed civilians, destroyed cities and mosques with no regard to anything in our path. Now we’re going to teach our young 'uns some values.

Sorry, but I think we’re a little late. We should have thought about values before we invaded and occupied a country that had done nothing to us. A country that had no dealings with 9/11. A country minding its own business before we decided we didn’t like its leader and the fact that he was standing on a lot of oil. We should have thought about that before we got us into this blood soaked mess that only gets worse by the day.

Beyond the immeasurable shame and sadness I feel over those murdered Iraqis, is the despair I feel over our own children. Is this what we’re raising? Are these really our sons and daughters? Is this the fruit of our educational, national, and spiritual culture? I know some people will say its a few bad apples, we’ll get rid of them, and all will be fine, but I disagree. It goes deeper than that. Too many people were cheering them on to war, not having been to war themselves. Too much of the media were willing to put profit first, not questioning what our government was doing and why. For all our constant crowing over what a wonderful, awesome nation we are, we appear to be raising our children to blindly march off to murder innocent people of other nations. Is that really what we stand for?

I have to believe most of our soldiers are good souls, who didn’t go over there as savages, but as gullible young people, all too malleable, all too willing to believe their commanders. And it’s ironic, if this war is so noble, so worth the sacrifice, as our leaders constantly remind us, why are none of them sending their children or grandchildren? And for that matter, why did none of them go to war back when it was their turn?

And finally, even sadder, is how these massacres came as no great surprise. How could they? After the initial "shock and awe" where we dropped bombs on heavily populated cities, where in the first weeks of the war, we let go a missile on a crowded restaurant where, supposedly, Saddam Hussein might be dining (and, of course, he wasn’t there, but, of course, we killed scores of innocents, including more children), after Abu Ghraib, after Fallujah, after all this carnage and horror and destruction, we’re supposed to be surprised that barbarity has taken on a new form?

Like many Americans, I can barely stand the news anymore. I can only shake my head in numbed sadness over what my country has become, over the suffering we’ve caused. We’re supposed to be spreading freedom and democracy, but in every poll taken, most Iraqis want us out. So why don’t we leave? Isn’t that democracy? If we’re giving them freedom, why don’t we leave them alone to be free? What if they don’t want our freedom that comes with missiles and tanks and bombs? Do they have the freedom to reject our freedom?

I quake at the price we’ll pay someday. Even if we’re never attacked physically (and that’s a big if), we’ve suffered something worse. The soul of our nation, once peace-loving and optimistic, has darkened and coarsened. Like many Americans, I don’t recognize my country anymore and sometimes the people in it. What are we doing and where are we going? I think of the future and can only shudder.
Laurie Stone is a freelance writer living in Connecticut. Her work has appeared in several Internet publications. She also has been a reporter and a columnist for the Connecticut Post and County Kids Magazine.

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