Why Soldiers Keep Dying – Or I Can’t Keep Up And It’s His Fault.

Every day, twice a day I go to this website.
This evening the count stood at 2,287 American soldiers killed in action (KIA) and 16,653 American soldiers wounded in action (WIA). I record the number of my soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan that day by recording it in my journal and putting it on the screensaver on my computer. After I record the numbers I think about them. Not them as a group but each individual soldier. I think about each of them and their families. I think about their wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, and brothers and sisters. But mostly I think about each soldier. What did they look like before? What do they look like now? What did they do that morning? Did they write a letter home? Was it to their mom or dad or was it to their sweetheart? Did they have a chance to go to the chow hall that morning and have a cup of coffee or are they so young they don’t have a taste for coffee yet. Did they have a chance to shoot the shit with their buds?

After I think about all of those things, then I ask myself, what were they doing when they ‘got it’? Were they walking a patrol in Karbala or were they riding in a humvee through Baghdad? Were they maybe standing guard outside of a police station or a mosque or were they just strolling through a market amidst innocent civilians when the bomb went off tearing at their flesh and the flesh of the men, women, and children around them (Civilian Deaths 28,501 – 32,119)? Was a medic nearby? Did the medic get there in time to save their life but not their arm or leg? Did they suffer a lot of did the medic have morphine to give them so they died without too much pain?

I think about all of this and then I wonder to myself; do you think about these things George W. Bush? And I know the answer. It comes screaming at me. No! You don’t think about these things. George W. Bush doesn’t think about these things. He hasn’t thought about these things since May 27, 1968. That was the last day that there was a chance he might have to serve. That was the last day that there was a chance that it might be his flesh that would be torn apart by a bomb or a bullet. That was the last day that there was a chance that it might have been his picture on NPR’s broadcast that night. He didn’t want that to happen. Back then he thought about all of those things that I think about every day, and he was afraid. George W. Bush was afraid then but George W. Bush isn’t afraid now. He isn’t afraid now because he knows he doesn’t have to go. All of that is behind him. He isn’t afraid now because his children don’t have to go. He isn’t afraid now because the children of his friends don’t have to go.

The problem with George W. Bush is that he does not take responsibility. He has never had to take responsibility or be responsible. He didn’t have to be responsible for getting into college because his father arranged for him to get into Harvard even though he didn’t have the grades. He didn’t have to be a responsible adult because his father arranged for him to get into Air National Guard as a pilot in spite of the fact that his score was the very minimum you could achieve and still get accepted. He didn’t have to be a responsible business man because even in business his father’s connections and money always bailed him out. He bailed him out even when he bankrupted every venture he ever attempted. The problem is that George W. Bush has never had to be responsible for anything and because of that he doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions. This is why he doesn’t care about the soldiers that are dying and sacrificing their lives and limbs for this country.

Mostly George W. Bush does not think about the soldiers dying and suffering in Iraq and Afghanistan because he doesn’t understand the concept of selflessness and serving a greater cause because today, as always, to George W. Bush, George W. Bush is the only greater cause.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.