The War Comes Home to Ohio, or "Why George W. is losing Middle America"

[throwthebumsout]

Yesterday, my sister (who voted for Smirk) said a tearful goodbye to the stepson she helped raise, and watched him leave for Iraq. Matt is 26, and has already given 8 years of service to his country, half of that in the Reserve. He has a young wife, and a 16 month old daughter. His father is literally sick with worry, and my sister says that he alternates between crying, and staring at a picture of Matt in his Little League uniform.

None of them thought he'd have to go. Incredibly enough, he was scheduled to get out of the Reserve, effective date tomorrow. "Surely he won't have to go -- not so near to getting out," they all said. But the war machine needed him, and off he went.
"Stoploss orders," they call them. "We need them all for the war machine," they say, with no regard for the loss they cause, and the empty chairs they leave behind.

My sister hates George W. now. She doesn't understand why their lives have been torn apart, why the grandchild she adores is leaving with Matt's wife to go back home to Colorado, where they'll be nearer her folks.

It was all an abstraction before. She wasn't political, barely watches the news. But now -- now the war has come home to Ohio. The longer we stay in this quagmire, the more kids who have to stay over there, the more sick and worried parents there are back home. The more people who begin to question why we're there.

My brother-in-law just wants his son back.

The war has come home to Ohio.

[spooky3]

1. I am truly sorry for you and your family but

I am also sorry to say that this example illustrates something I've seen in other Republicans--that they don't empathize. If a tragedy hits them, then they fight as hard as anyone else for a remedy, but many of them just don't get it as long as it is happening only to the "other guys."

Again, I hope for the best for your nephew and that he comes home soon.

[throwthebumsout]

4. Yes, I agree

I love my sister very much, but I also agree. That's what I was trying to say with the "it was all an abstraction before." But this is why I also think that we will draw some people away who voted for the idiot the last time.

[Zeke]

10. Here Is Wisdonm...

"The greatest mistake of my life was getting amilitary education." ---Confederate General Robert E. Lee

[tom_paine]

22. Whoa. Got a link to confirm that?

Very interesting if true.

[sallyseven]

2. How very sad.

There are thousands of families out there. Just as sick and worried. I worry over them also. God help us all in the bad things we allow our government to do.

[mandyky]

3. Wow, what a powerful testimony!

Thanks for sharing, and be sure to send your sister and brother-in-law my regards. This stop loss thing sucks. I'd just as soon they reinstate the draft as do this stuff.

[throwthebumsout]

7. Thanks (nm)

no message

[whathappened]

5. i sure fill for these family

it sickens me to no end to see these young men and women have to go and fight a war for a new state of this union , we have 50 states and that is all we need , but some how i think we are not going to be content to just have 50 , we want it all it seems , there is no end to this crap until we get rid of this uinch in office and get our asses back home and mind our own dam buiness and just buy the oil and start thinking how we can reuse some of our own trash to make burnable fuel for this country

[PeakOil2008]

6. From one Buckeye to another, I'm sorry to hear about this... n/t

[throwthebumsout]

8. Not a Buckeye, but my sister lives there -- thanks (nm)

nm

[calimary]

9. I am so sorry for your family.

It is a wretched way to make a conversion away from the Dark Side, that's for sure. What a heartbreak! And how many times over is this being compounded for bush's STUPID, RECKLESS, GREED-FUELED war?

When does this END?

[MercutioATC]

11. I have a cousin that re-enlisted with the promise that he'd stay

in Germany. He's engaged to a German girl, so it worked for him. Where does he go next month? Iraq. (they told him of his new assignment a week after he re-enlisted).

[Dr.Phool]

16. Just like 35 years ago

They'll promise you anything, even in writing, but don't believe a word of it.

In 1969 I enlisted in the Navy (during 'Nam) and was guaranteed specific training in my enlistment contract. In boot camp you're given a whole battery of test to determine where you go. If you score above a certain level, you can get any school you want. Above that, you qualify for the Naval Academy. I finished WAY high, and qualified for the Academy, was 2nd in my company, and the guy who finished higher was a Stephen Hawking type. The next guy below me was down by 30 points. Did I at least get the school I was promised?

No.

[MercutioATC]

17. I know, and I could kill him myself...

He's just about the biggest pacifist you could imagine...very "Hey, we might disagree, but we can still work things out". I'd friggin' hide him here if he wasn't already in Germany...

Let's all hope for a change in November so we can get these kids back home where they belong.

[Silverhair]

12. Yeah, he is losing so bad that his latest favorability poll is 65%. n/t

[spooky3]

14. and my point is, & the original post is saying,

that the more people who are directly affected by *'s policies (and right now the numbers aren't as great as they will be) the more that "favorability" number will wobble. Aside from the war issue, for example, right now too many folks are profiting from his spending money that is being borrowed, and the birds will come home to roost on that. We all enjoy our new toys before we have to pay the Mastercard. Will it happen before the election? I don't know, but it will happen if we continue down this road. Do I wish people would see this before they personally experience adverse consequences? Yes, but I think there are too many Repugs who are not capable of doing that.

[BeFree]

15. 65 % percent you say?

That's pretty bad. We have a war going on and only 65% of the people are at least cognizant of the fact that he's the president and they tell the pollster "Yeah, whatever, he's all right."

And it's only 65%??

That's bad for the boy. I'd say: Toast. That's how bad off he,*, is. He's Toast.

[throwthebumsout]

18. Methinks you missed the point....

....by a mile.

The longer this war goes on, the more people, like my sister, who are impacted by it personally. And THAT will be the undoing of the Bush administration.

[Sugarbleus]

13. I too am gutted with

sorrow for your families plight. My daughter served in the first gulf war and I was BESIDE MYSELF with grief and worry. I can totally, TOTALLY empathize with those folks.
My holy god, what will it take to get this megalomaniac out of freaking office??????????????????????????

Just what DOES it take anyway, to impeach a bum like GW Narcissist?!!!!!!!????? I can't wait til an election. Something should be done right now!

Hail to the Grief........:grr:

[Dr Fate]

19. I hope everything works out...

May our thoughts be with you...

[Bandit]

20. I'm sorry for the misery but "you dance with the one that brung ya"

They voted for war and now they have it. What the hell did they expect?

[IrateCitizen]

24. Please explain to me how they voted for war, Bandit

I didn't think that there were really any hotspots that we were balls-deep in anywhere around the world in 2000. I could be wrong, however, and would appreciate any information to the contrary.

[Bandit]

25. Maybe I should have said the "War Machine"

If you don't remember the military thing as a major part of the Bush* campaign then your memory is faulty. Military Industrial Complex was a major factor in the selection of Bush*. Anybody who voted for him also voted for the build-up and use of the military industrial complex. They knew what they voted for it was not hidden. It came as no surprise to me when we went to war. It wasn't based on 9-11 either. It was in the works long before the election.

[IrateCitizen]

26. Both parties are beholden to the Iron Triangle

That being military, military contractors, and Congress. But I do agree with you -- the military ethos does better fit with the Republicans and their "law and order" fundamentalist worldview.

But, not excusing the ignorance, how do you still say that these people were "voting for war", that they somehow got what they deserve? I fail to see it that way -- maybe because I don't demonize them for their prior selfishness but instead empathize with their current situation.

[Bandit]

27. I am to the point where my sympathy comes less often

I hate to be callous however I have been listening to right-wingers gloat over and over again about their great victory over horrible Liberals. Well if Liberals had not been dry-gulched these people would not be sending their children over to another country to die for a corrupt cabal. It may be mean but I still say if you don't like the heat stay out of the kitchen. I'm willing to bet these same people will vote for Bush* again.

[ninkasi]

21. I'm so sorry for your family...

I pray he'll be safe. While I don't have any family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan myself, it breaks my heart to think of all of the ones serving there, to enrich Bush and his cronies. I think about the ones wounded, physically and mentally, and the lives that are being torn apart.

I grieve for the Iraqis, who did not ask to be invaded, and have their country blown into rubble and their natural resources stolen. Perhaps the reason I worry and grieve and have such overwhelming fits of anger over this whole thing is that while I don't have a blood relationship with all those I mentioned, I do share with them in belonging to the human race, and that makes all of them family in the truest sense of the word.

When the right wing can understand and embrace the concept that we are all family, we are all children of this earth, then maybe we can begin to change the history of our blood drenched planet.

[BigBadDaddy-O]

23. I have family who are over the pond, and friends ready to go as well.

But sadly only a few have blamed Bush.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

28. How do you tell a teen not to join up now when his pa and grandpa did?

My ex just told me that her brother's son is about to join the Air Force. I was appalled. But his dad did service and grandpa was an Air Force big shot. A male family thing.

I'm composing a letter to my ex's parents to inquire how they feel about their grandson joining up during an illegal war and with an illigitimate war criminal for a Commander-in-Chief.

I don't expect my letter to be welcomed but I must write.

Any suggestions?