(no subject)

[somedaybitch]

what the NYT left out.

"I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

as Michelle says, it's always more telling by what is left out.

people like Jeffrey fought in a war over 50 years ago and they liberated a small town in what is now Croatia. it was Italy then, and it was my mother's home town. i was born free because people like Jeffrey were willing to sacrifice their lives for an ideal; for a belief that they weren't the only ones that deserved to live free; for perfect strangers.

Comments

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

I guess whoever at the times editor or writer has no concept how much it dishonors a human being to report their final words incomplete and twisted out of context. Regardless of the man being a soldier, in a war that whoever doesn't agree with, these were HIS words. [assuming this part of the story isn't a plant. I wouldn't believe it was, but then I wouldn't imagine the times doing such a dishonorable thing, I guess I don't have much faith in anyone I don't actually know... that'd be you - pat on the back...]

Personally the fact that this number of dead is more important than those who are injured yet live, which is much higher than previously due to better med treatments, really bugs me. I can't even find a descent figure for this, DOD or independent, although 15000 is thrown around. People against the war throw out Vietnam, when almost everything is different, the scale, the backing of the insurgents, the ideology involved. Everyone always compares to the "Last War" and they are never alike. That would be apparent if people bothered to figure out some of the larger issues involved...


and yet knowing all those issues doesn't really help you decide justification, because the answer just isn't easy... it never is. Bottom line is that now we are there, and it does us no good to abandon them. There will be another rise of taliban-like if we do, and down the road there will be an even bigger problem to face. IMHO anyway ;)

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

to the NYT thing, i find their behavior reprehensible. they intentionally left out information because it didn't support their side. they are not supposed to tell me how to think. they are supposed to report the news, ALL OF IT, so that i can make up my own mind.

as to that, it's never been a difficult question for me.