by Rosemary and Walter Brasch
Segued into
a 10-second afterthought, smothered by 60-second Christmas commercials, is the
media acknowledgement of Thanksgiving, which nudges us into a realization of
all we are thankful for.
But the
usual litany, even with the omnipresent pictures of the less fortunate being
fed by the more fortunate, doesn’t list well this year. Our thanks seem to be at
best half-hearted or at least insensitive and shallow.
All of us might be thankful for
peace if America still hadn’t been involved in two recent wars. The Iraq war
lasted almost nine years; the other, in Afghanistan, has lasted more than 12
years and is the nation’s longest war. And now it appears that we will be in
Afghanistan for several more years.
When we first went there in 2001,
it was to capture Osama bin Laden. We can be thankful that has been done. But
why are we still there? And why should Americans still be getting wounded and
killed? There were 4,486 killed and 32,000 wounded in Iraq, an unnecessary war
that was launched with bravado and no long-range plans. In Afghanistan, there have been 2,292 killed,
almost 18,000 wounded.
