Living with War: Memorial Day 2009

So we're now living in the Era of Change, are we? New president, new vice president, new name for the War in Iraq.

For the past three Memorial Days [2006, 2007, 2008], I've honored the memory of those who have died in the War in Iraq, now known as simply a part of the Overseas Contingency Operation. George Orwell would have been proud of the way the name of the War in Iraq has been changed to lessen the reminder that our young men and women are still dying for no obvious Cause.

Other than the name, has anything changed?

Yes. Its results are increasingly doubleplusungood.

The American death toll in Iraq has now reached 4,300. Since last Memorial Day, another 219 Americans soldiers have died in Iraq. Another 219 American families will never again see their sons and daughters, their fathers and mothers.

We can no longer blame the War in Iraq on George W. Bush's oil tycoon friends or on dastardly Dick Cheney's secret identity as Dr. Strangelove, or on the non-existent WMD's non-possessed by a now long-dead Saddam Hussein or even on our national need for revenge for 9/11 against a country that wasn't involved in those horrific attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

The responsibility now firmly rests on Barack Obama, who has already waffled on his own timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

As I've said before: Bring 'em home, now!

Memorial Day 2009 | Death Toll in Iraq War | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com