I Thought The Mission Was Accomplished When I Was 12

A high school junior, my buddy's son, asked me this question not too long ago. His father is an NCO that has fought in theater and today teaches ROTC at a local college; his son is hoping to follow in those same footsteps and make a career out of the military. It struck me as a realistic sort of measuring stick for where we are in this war. This young man was 12 years old when George Bush declared - mission accomplished, "an end to major combat operations in Iraq." It has been anything but...

He said that since then he has seen a "bunch of old guys" 4 and 5 years older than him go over and die in Iraq or comeback not the same. In his JROTC class many of the Junior and Senior classmates from a couple of years before are over there and many of those have died -this war has defined his childhood. He, like most of us, recognizes the mistakes we have made and would still love to enlist in the Army but, understandably, is hesitant; he wonders if he will when so many young people continue to die in a war that has been deemed unnecessary.

My lord, I knew that it had been a few years but had never really thought about the soldiers that are fighting this war who were only children when it began. Senator Boxer gave a speech directed at Secretary Rice not to long ago about how our children's children will be fighting this war and that she (Rice) would never be affected by this because she did not have family. She was correct to some extent but I think she neglected to acknowledge the current number of people that make up the combat operations in Iraq - most were not 18 when we were told that this war was close to resolution. Familiar relations or not, this war is currently affecting us all.

In addition to Iraq the President is, more or less, threatening to invade Iran. Take a look at your children or imagine back to when you were 12 and the world seemed like an untouched canvass awaiting your design; it would be a damn shame to hold these young people back by an ill conceived war that has and will continue to rob so many of their hopes and dreams. Our current trek will instead send them to die or forever be traumatized in a place that we never should have been. Blind-faith in leaders will get you killed.

I am 37 years old and am an Army Veteran; I feel complicit in all this if I cannot help end this escalation in Iraq, and, as adults, I hope you all feel the same sort of urgency. Let's call on bolder measures, which do not include non-binding resolutions, and instead those that will pull funding and even those that consider impeachment as viable options; only then will you become a serious enough player to put an end to this garbage and bring sanity back into our Foreign Policy.