I was able to watch a little TV last night while the family was all sick in bed. I don't usually get the opportunity to watch news programs because I am the only one in the family who loves the news. I happened to catch a story on 60 Minutes which upset me to no end, I thought I would share my frustration with y'all because currently Jeff is working so many hours he doesn't have time to listen to me complain about the stuff on TV, please feel free to not read this if you do not like to get frustrated by the war in Iraq...
You can go to this link to read all about the story that was done by Scott Pelley, entitled Left Behind. Here is quote to give you the gist of the story
Many thousands of Iraqis believed in the cause. They signed on as drivers, construction workers and office workers. But now they and their families are being hunted down by insurgents bent on killing them for collaborating. No wonder many are fleeing Iraq, desperate for asylum. But as they appeal to the U.S., many feel they’re being left behind.
The story goes on to show many young healthy Iraqi men who want to defect to America and we are saying no to them. Most of these men have left Iraq and are currently refugees in bordering countries.
My problem is, why are they not in Iraq fighting for their country? The story is told in such a way as to imply that they (the Iraqis) helped us (the Americans), and now we owe them. The story says that they (Iraqis) believed in our(Americans) cause. This is a major problem in the war, the Iraqi people who agree with us, think this is our fight. Shouldn't they be thinking this is their country, their fight and we are there in Iraq to help them?
We have over a million men and women from America who have gone into Iraq and risked their lives. These are volunteers, people who want to make a difference for their country (America) and are willing to risk their lives because the yahoo's in Washington swear that fighting in Iraq will make America more safe. But, the young and healthy Iraqi's are unwilling to make that same commitment to their own country. These people are former translators, former truck drivers, former as in they are no longer helping us, they are now living in another country asking us to let they come live in America because we owe them for the help they gave to us. What about what they owe us? What about what every man, woman and child in Iraq owes us? There is no way we can ever stabilize this country until it becomes the Iraqi people versus the insurgents instead of the American military versus the insurgents.
If we decide to pull out of Iraq and leave the country to solve it's own problems as we did in Vietnam, then I am all for allowing those people who helped us to defect to America. However, right now I do not favor allowing anyone from Iraq to defect to America, I believe that as long as our soldiers are in Iraq risking their lives to make it a safe and democratic government that the citizen's of Iraq are either with us or against us in this war, they need to either stand beside us or we need to leave.
Of course I never thought we should have gone in the first place, but that is just me. I was just so disgusted to see these young Iraqi men on TV saying poor me the Americans won't let me defect even though I translated for them and now my life is in danger from the insurgents. From my perspective every grieving American family and every wounded American solider should be asking these men, look at the sacrifices I made for you and your country, why aren't you doing more to help defeat the insurgents?
This news story makes it seem as if the people of Iraq are currently afraid to be associated with the American military, afraid that those against the Americans will take revenge upon them and their families. I wish that more Iraqi's would stand up to these people and make the insurgents feel unsafe. It seems that no one is afraid to be an insurgent, it is not a threat to your family to be against the current government and the American military. Any thoughts?
1 comments:
Wow! In so many ways I feel unqualified to respond since I have such a strong abhorrence to this war (or any war) that I don't watch much coverage of it. I admit to not reading the paper, or watching the news. Although, I almost always watch 60 Minutes, because I like some perspective, but last night I was called elsewhere. I wish I had seen it now. I do feel such saddness for the Iraqi people for their lives before we showed up and especially since. I don't know if our presence will ever turn the tide for a safe and democratic goverment, or if it does, will the price have been too high for us and for them?
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