Severely Contrasting Views

The first article I read was featured in the New York Times and was basically talking about how President Bush continues to dive deeper into the war in Iraq and refusing to end the war. Opponents and members of Congress say they will not let Bush ruin our country like this and continue in the fashion he is currently moving in. What resonated with me the most about this article and President Bush was the fact that no one of the soldiers is ever honored or talked about. Men and women are giving their lives to this war and our nation does not think of the soldiers when we talk about withdrawing. It is always about the safety of our country or the economy or the cost of the war that drives us to want to withdraw. On the Iraq Veterans Against War Website there was a post “commemorating” the horrific milestone of 4,000 deaths due to the war. Justin Cliborn mentions the importance of honoring those whose lives were cut short by this war, “To those who have served and to those who are proud to call their family members veterans, 4,000 will never be a sufficient barometer of what our nation has lost. Each notch on the casualty list represents a name, a family, and a life.” I was most taken aback by how different Cliborn and Bush view the war. To Bush, it is more or less a fight to show who is stronger in the end, but to Cliborn, it is strength in men and women who give their lives for their country.
I feel these articles contrast in the weight of the subject matter. The war on Iraq means two completely different things to both audiences. Crazily enough, President Bush is fighting a different war than those who are currently there. As Blake Miller says in Rolling Stone, “’I mean, how do you soak all that in when you're fuckin' twenty years old?’… ‘It's like they were asking us, “Are you willingly ready to just fuckin' die?” You know what? No, I don't feel like it. Not yet. I started thinking then, ‘Did I really fuckin' sign up for this?’”(5). No one is able to feel the real threat like those who are risking their lives for a country that isn’t even sure when the war will end. This thought makes me feel like once as a nation we can clearly define the real reason we are fighting in Iraq and what we are accomplishing then we can truly set timetables to leave.

http://www.ivaw.org/node/3043
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/washington/14prexy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all