NYT: Iraq War Ends Silently for One American Soldier

[grytpype]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/world/middleeast/29soldier.html?hp&ex=1151553600&en=0227790bfef5719b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Iraq War Ends Silently for One American Soldier
By DEXTER FILKINS

RAMADI, Iraq, June 28 — A soldier was dead, and it was time for him to go home.

The doors to the little morgue swung open, and six soldiers stepped outside carrying a long black bag zippered at the top.

About 60 soldiers were waiting to say goodbye. They had gathered in the sand outside this morgue at Camp Ramadi, an Army base in Anbar Province, now the most lethal of Iraqi places.

...

In the darkness, as the sound of the helicopter faded, Colonel MacFarland addressed his soldiers.

"I don't know if this war is worth the life of Terry Lisk, or 10 soldiers, or 2,500 soldiers like him," Colonel MacFarland told his forces. "What I do know is that he did not die alone. He was surrounded by friends.

"A Greek philosopher said that only the dead have seen the end of war," the colonel said. "Only Terry Lisk has seen the end of this war."

[eleny]

1. .

:cry:

[beam me up scottie]

2. .

A wounded soldier on a stretcher was among those saluting Sgt. Terry Michael Lisk, who died in Ramadi.

[countmyvote4real]

3. The only way to "un-break this" is to get the hell out of there,.

God bless Terry Lisk and I hope there is a god to bless him for his service to his country that lied to the world in order to persuade him to defend the ulterior motives of the false regime dubiously in charge of his country.

Not a bit of that truth defames or detracts from the honest service of soldiers like Terry Lisk. Sadly, it simultaneously confirms their status as martyrs to the neo-con world view: Send anybody, but me.

My heart would break into pieces if not for my anger. That’s not good either. We need peace to understand the senseless loss of everything we’ve taken for granted from day one of our Federal Government. More specifically, the Bush* administration takes a big fat dump on Our Constitution and preemptively invades a country without provocation.

Of course, this negates the real reasons offered by the * cabal as their case for premature war and invasion of sovereign country. And I suggest that it negates the further US occupation of Iraq. .

The “mission accomplished” factor was attached years ago, but we are still there. And more people like Terry Lisk continue to die. For what?

[Historic NY]

4. Why?

:cry:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. Platitudes spoken by armed men don't impress me anymore.

I'm sorry, but they just don't. If he doesn't think the war he's in the middle of should be fought, the Colonel should have the courage to walk away from it.

:shrug:

[readmoreoften]

8. How does a person in the middle of the war walk away from it?

Just condemning the war to the troops is putting your neck on the line. Do I think he should go AWOL and encourage others to do so? I do. But it's hard to condemn someone who would spend 10 years in a military prison as a traitor if he "did the right thing." Or possibly be shot to death by his own.

I haven't been in a war, so I can't condemn him. It seems about as reasonable as saying, "I don't listen to anyone who doesn't stop this fascist government by any means necessary."

I am not one inch less guilty than this colonel. I have not risked prison by refusing to pay taxes. All I've done is go to jail for a day, protest in the streets, and lose my job in retaliation for my activism. And most people won't even do that.

I understand your sentiment, that more should be done than idle talk. I WHOLLY AGREE. But how many of us are taking serious risks to make a small dent against this regime? Very few.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. "I don't know if this war is worth the life of Terry Lisk"

It isn't.

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. Took Em Only Three Years

To personalize a war death. Now if they will only follow up the coverup this dead soldier's arrival will receive stateside. . .

[saigon68]

9. He's about to begin his long "DIRT NAP"

As the Neocon Pigs celebrate their fortunes this week-end,

With patriotic gluttony of heaping platters of lobster, washed down with Dom Perrignon

[Solly Mack]

10. I'm sorry he's dead...I'm even more sorry that there will never be

any justice for his death. Bush will walk away free and clear.

No one will be held accountable for the lies.

Accountable means - being tossed from office for abuses of power and crimes against the people, tried for those charges and then jailed for a very long, long time.

Anything less is America sweeping her crimes under the carpet.

America will write a history of grave heroes in hopes of overshadowing the crimes, the lies...the disease called nationalism...American exceptionalism.

It sickens me knowing, judging from the past and present, that America has no problem shirking accountability under the corrupt thinking that it's "for the good for the country" to allow the guilty to walk free. That somehow not trying the guilty brings the country together.

Those who spout that bullshit don't believe it themselves...but then they aren't selling themselves on it...

Just wait..some of the very same people outraged today will be willing to deny justice for the easy out. It's not better for America to move on...it's just easier than facing the reality that America isn't the myth taught in schools.

You can't build a healthy relationship on a lie...you can't build a healthy country on one either. Deny justice and you create more injustice.

America can survive exposing her government for it's crimes. America can survive sending a presidential administration to prison. America can survive announcing to the world that she was wrong.

How can anyone claim to believe in the principles of America and think otherwise?