|
|
 | | From: | James A. Chamblee | | Subject: | It's Official: My Brother Died in Vain | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:16:43 GMT |
|
|
 | January 15, 2005
It's Official: My Brother Died in Vain By Dante Zappala
Why My Brother Died After two years, the government has called off
its fruitless hunt for WMD.
Dante Zappala is a part-time teacher in Los Angeles. E-mail:
dante.zappala@lycos.com
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1009011.htm
This week, the White House announced, with little fanfare, that the
two-year search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had finally
ended, and it acknowledged that no such weapons existed there at
the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003.
For many, this may be a story of only passing interest. But for me
and my family, it resonates with profound depth.
My brother was Sgt. Sherwood Baker. He was a member of the Pennsylvania
National Guard deployed a year ago with his unit out of Wilkes-Barre.
He said goodbye to his wife and his 9-year-old son, boarded a bus
and went to Ft. Dix, N.J., to be hastily retrained. His seven years
of Guard training as a forward observer was practically worthless
because he would not face combat. All he needed to do was learn how
to not die.
He received a crash course in convoy security, including practice
in running over cardboard cutouts of children. We bought him a GPS
unit and walkie-talkies because he wasn't supplied with them. In
Iraq, Sherwood was assigned to the Iraq Survey Group and joined the
search for weapons of mass destruction.
David Kay, who led the group until January 2004, had already stated
that they did not exist. Former United Nations weapons inspector
Hans Blix had expressed serious doubts about their presence during
prewar inspections. In fact, a cadre of former U.N. inspectors and
U.S. generals had been saying for years that Iraq posed no threat
to our country. On April 26, 2004, the Iraq Survey Group, at the
behest of the stubborn administration sitting safely in office
buildings in Washington, was still on its fruitless but dangerous
search. My brother stood atop his Humvee, securing the perimeter
in front of a suspect building in Baghdad. But as soldiers entered
the building, it exploded; the official cause is still not known.
Sherwood was struck by debris in the back of his head and neck, and
he was killed.
Since that day, my family and I have lived with the grief of losing
a loved one. We have struggled to explain his death to his son. We
have gazed at the shards of life scattered at our feet, in wonder
of its fragility, in perpetual catharsis with God.
I have moved from frustration to disappointment to anger. And now
I have arrived at a place not of understanding but of hope blind
hope that this will change.
The Iraq Survey Group's final report, which was filed in October
but revealed only on Wednesday, confirmed what we knew all along.
And as my mother cried in the kitchen, the nation barely blinked.
I am left now with a single word seared into my consciousness:
accountability. The chance to hold our administration's feet to
that flame has passed. But what of our citizenry? We are the ones
who truly failed. We shut down our ability to think critically, to
listen, to converse and to act. We are to blame.
Even with every prewar assumption having been proved false, today
more than 130,000 U.S. soldiers are trying to stay alive in a foreign
desert with no clear mission at hand.
At home, the sidelines are overcrowded with patriots. These Americans
cower from the fight they instigated in Iraq. In a time of war and
record budget deficits, many are loath to even pay their taxes. In
the end, however, it is not their family members who are at risk,
and they do not sit up at night pleading with fate to spare them.
Change is vital. We must remind ourselves that the war with Iraq
was not a mistake but rather a flagrant abuse of power by our leaders
and a case of shameful negligence by the rest of us for letting it
happen. The consequence is more than a quagmire. The consequence
is the death of our national treasure our soldiers.
We are all accountable. We all share the responsibility of what has
been destroyed in our name. Let us begin to right the wrongs we
have done to our country by accepting that responsibility.
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1009011.htm
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________
LATEST CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS HEADLINES:
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/index.cfm?m=1&y=2005
January 2005 A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism 1
Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:25 PM
Christian Zionism - An Ideological Tower of Babel 1 Saturday, 15
January 2005 01:24 PM
Unspooking Frank Carlucci - The Origins of a Master of the World 1
Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:19 PM
Flying Carpet Airlines - My Return to Baghdad, By ROBERT FISK 1
Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:14 PM
Happy talk - Bush fantasies 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:02 PM
6 Palestinians shot dead by Israelis, Habib's flight to freedom,
US Said to Regret Kidnapping of German & More 1 Saturday, 15 January
2005 12:52 PM
The Tsunami of Iraq 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 12:34 PM
It's Official: My Brother Died in Vain 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005
12:24 PM
Bush's Misadventures Will Kill Your Grandkids, One Way Or Another
1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 12:20 PM
The Anti-Inauguration: Stand Up and Be Counted 1 Saturday, 15 January
2005 12:07 PM
Declassified FBI And Military Documents Point Finger At White House
For Allowing Torture 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 12:04 PM
Pictures you will never see in the media - Mortar attack on US base
in Iraq 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 11:46 AM
GIMF (Global Islamic Media Front) Flash Collection 1 Saturday, 15
January 2005 11:42 AM
'Greater' Israel 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 11:10 AM
Paul Bremer supervised the destruction of Iraq's cohesion 1 Saturday,
15 January 2005 10:27 AM :: Comments/Trackback (1-0)
Bush on WMD: Tragedy or farce?
1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 10:23 AM :: Comments/Trackback (1-0)
Rabbis warn against Rabbi Kook's call for civil war over evacuation,
Group Calls for a Kenneth Starr for Abu Ghraib & More 1 Saturday,
15 January 2005 10:18 AM
A New Victory for the Bolivian People against privatized water 1
Saturday, 15 January 2005 10:03 AM :: Comments/Trackback (1-0)
Mr. Bush, please explain where sanity went 1 Saturday, 15 January
2005 09:56 AM
US Casualty Figures 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 09:40 AM ::
Comments/Trackback (2-0)
The Critical Battle for Iraq's Energy, Students told stripping is
career choice, Mcgovern Urges Pull-Out From Iraq & More 1 Saturday,
15 January 2005 09:23 AM
Bushs Grand Plan: Incite Civil War 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 09:13
AM
Boston Globe: We're slowly becoming a police state 1 Saturday, 15
January 2005 09:06 AM
AIDing and abetting death in Falluja 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005
08:56 AM
The Bush Zone 1 Saturday, 15 January 2005 08:41 AM
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/index.cfm?m=1&y=2005
MARC PARENT
Political tagssuch as royalist, communist, democrat, populist,
fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forthare never basic criteria.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to
be controlled and those who have no such desire.
- Robert A Heinlein
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the
urge to rule.
- H.L. Mencken
|
|
|
