Memorial Day 2009 Ain't Gonna Study War No More

We all have loved ones who have served in the military or know someone whose child/nephew/niece are serving somewhere. These kids don't make policy, they love their country, and they follow orders and do the best they can to perform their duties.

So I'm sending out a painting I did 3 years ago. This painting was in memory of our soldiers killed in Iraq. At the time the number of Americans killed was 2322. The number is now around 4500, more or less. The casualties in Afghanistan continue to rise now as well, and we appear to be focusing on the Taliban and Al Quaeda again.

Reasons against the war in Iraq were clearly enunciated by people wiser than me years ago -- perhaps a "truth" commission of some sort will emerge from the wreckage to sort out the fabrications and misjudgments. But at the time, I thought it was premature at the very least to attack Iraq and that we should have focused on Al Quaeda and the Taliban, who were the ones who attacked us on that Sept. 11.

But I also remember that our war against Iraq lasted about three weeks.

What followed was a sectarian civil war incited by Al Quaeda which rushed into Iraq seeing the opportunity of the power vacuum we created with our grossly incompetent and disastrous post war ideological fecklessness, with our soldiers caught in the various crossfires. Al Quaeda wasn't there when we started, but they arrived in large numbers shortly thereafter. The war in Iraq was a golden opportunity for Al Quaeda, and they seized it with all their jihadist nihlistic passion.

They've now been pushed out of Iraq for the most part into Afghanistan and Pakistan -- which is where we appear to be moving our war effort next.

My dad served in the Navy in WWII, and he died just over a year ago now. There are fewer and fewer WWII Veterans as the years go by. He had two brothers, both gone now, who served in the Navy as well. One was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and survived by the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time.

So God be with our troops around the world wherever they are and let's pray for wisdom for our leaders.

Regards on this Memorial Day 2009,
Bud
www.artbycassiday.com


Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing "Ain't gonna study War no More."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmRm0-acJw