Tragedy Everywhere

I just can’t take all the fucking bad news anymore. There seems to be tragedy everywhere. First is the major loss of life, destruction of property, etc. in the south from Hurricane Katrina. Then there’s the largest loss of life in Iraq in one day since we’ve been there, this one due to panic over a report that a suicide bombing was about to occur. And perhaps most disheartening is this blog from an American soldier who had just returned to Iraq. His blog just sort of… ends. And then in the comments section is an outpouring of grief where I realize that he was one of those names that you hear about in the press (or don’t hear about)… Where “three soldiers in Iraq were killed today when their transport overturned in a sinkhole…”

Going about my day to day life here in the US, not being asked by our government to sacrifice anything, it’s so easy to get caught up in my own life. And when I hear that another three or four soldiers died in Iraq, it’s so easy to just get upset and curse George Bush and then go on with my life with this whole thing occupying some dark space in the back of my head… Knowing that some horrible shit is going on “over there,” but being otherwise powerless to stop it.

And then I read something like this soldier’s blog and I realize just how many people are connected to every one of those soldiers who die in this unholy war. There is so much suffering… Some of it is inevitable, but some of it was preventable. George Bush has so much blood on his hands. He says he’s a Christian. I wish I could be there when he has to explain his actions. Last night the Majority Report had an audio clip of Dick Cheney back in 1991 claiming why it would be so crazy an idea to go into Baghdad — that establishing some kind of government would be such a monumental undertaking that we surely had better not get ourselves involved in this “classic definition of a quagmire.” Amazing what money can do to a person, eh?

There is true evil in the world, and it scares me that it’s gained such a foothold.

But there is one bit of comfort in the news today. Apparently, the attacks on Cindy Sheehan by the group behind the “Swiftboat Vets” aren’t registering with a large majority of the population. According to this article on Salon, she has a much higher approval rating than the president.

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