FREEDOM STILL ISN'T FREE


By the way . . . we're still at war
By Kelvin Wade
April 28, 2011

I was recently at the park with my 6-year-old grandson, Vika, when my BlackBerry rang. It was Vika's dad, David, calling from Iraq. David, who previously served in the U.S. Army, now works as a private contractor on a U.S. base in Iraq. I put Vika on the phone so he could talk with his dad.

Afterward, I spoke with David and he was blunt about life in his current camp. They were under frequent attack. It was quite different from his previous trips to Iraq. I've always appreciated talking with him about the conditions on the ground in Iraq, the morale of soldiers he works with and other things you don't see on the news.

It's kept me remembering the thousands of American soldiers and contractors in harm's way.

Since that conversation, photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed in Misrata, Libya. Hetherington co-directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary 'Restrepo' with Sebastian Junger. I'd wanted to see 'Restrepo' and Hetherington's death prompted me to see the film. I wasn't disappointed.

The film covers the 15-month deployment of the 2/503 Battle Company, of the 173rd ABN in the brutal Korengal Valley in Afghanistan in 2007-08. There's the camaraderie and joking you'd expect during the down time and the chaotic, chilling scenes of combat. The directors cut away to interviews with the surviving members of the unit. While they added depth and context to the documentary, oftentimes, just their expressions spoke volumes about what it was like to be in Outpost Restrepo in the Korengal.

Another good documentary I watched recently on HBO is 'The Battle for Marjah.' It follows Bravo Company, 1st Marine Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, as they're deployed in Marjah in Helmand Province early last year. The documentary shows the hardships and the seeming futility of fighting a shadowy enemy while trying to win the hearts and minds of the Afghans.

Neither documentary is heavy-handed. There's no preaching. No soap box. So there's no excuse for more Americans not watching these and other documentaries about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we can find three hours to watch a sporting event, surely we can find 90 minutes to watch the sacrifice our men and women are making in our name around the world.

If we can't send care packages or letters, we at least owe it to them to stay engaged.

We live in a peculiar time where our nation is at war yet the public is disengaged. The suffering and sacrifice isn't borne by all of us. We have nearly 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and more assets engaged in Libya. It doesn't feel like we're at war.

It definitely feels like war to the families of the two American soldiers who were killed last week in Southern Iraq, bringing the total to 4,450 since the war began. And this week eight U.S. soldiers and a U.S. contractor were killed in Afghanistan, pushing the total over 1,450.

Tens of thousands have been injured. We can't forget them.

It's not academic for thousands of families like mine who have loved ones in a war zone. When I first Googled the camp David works on, the first story that caught my eye was of a civilian contractor working for the same company doing the same job David is doing who was killed by mortar fire in that camp last August.

We're at war. Let's remember that. Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: It boggles my mind that we can have nearly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, 47,000 in Iraq, an untold number of civilian contractors supporting the war effort, as well as ships, planes and drones wreaking havoc in Libya and no real tangible signs that we're at war. We have all this going on and not a hint of sacrifice among the general population. We have to pay attention because frankly, it shouldn't be this easy to conduct wars. We shouldn't be able to conduct wars with the general public just going about their business like nothing's happening. If we do, then that makes it more likely to conduct future wars. This is a subject I'm going to keep coming back to because we can't forget that there are people with their lives on the line right now.

Of course we support the brave men and women in harm's way. I'd like nothing better than to see them out of harm's way. Back to their families. I'd like to see Iraqis and Afghans police and defend their own nations. And forgive me but as great as it is to build schools and whatnot in those countries, I'd like us to bring that money home. We need it here. We need schools. We could use a lot of things to put Americans back to work.

On the personal front....The good news for Lauryn and Vika is their dad will soon be leaving his current camp for a better position. Hopefully he'll be in a safer situation.

http://www.amillionthanks.org/
http://www.carepackageproject.com/
http://www.anysoldier.com/
http://volunteerguide.org/volunteer/fewhours/military-care-packages.htm

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