I hate war!  You know how many troops died the day Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died?  At least 13, and guess what, no one knew about it, because of Michael Jackson hording the headlines.  I used to think people did not want to hear bad things about the war, such as deaths or massive injuries just because it is depressing, but when you cover up the war with more deaths, especially a celebrity death it does not make sense.  Yes, a celebrity is well known, and yes, they do deserve some praise for their lifetime achievement IF it is deserved, but by covering all the headlines with those celebrities the media makes it seem as if our troops are nothing.  It is a complete slap in the face.  I think it is extremely important that every person in the United States knows how many people die daily in the War, whether it is in Iraq or newly moved to Afghanistan.  On the news they had mentioned that July had been the deadliest month in Iraq in a long time, did anyone hear that, did anyone care? 

I remember when I lived in Los Angeles.  I believe it was around 2004, I went to the Santa Monica Pier to hang out with a friend and grab dinner, but as we were walking over to the pier, there were several hundred to thousand little American flags stuck in the sand.  It was a small memorial for all the soldiers that had died in Iraq thus far.  On a table near all those flags (by which each flag had a name), there were newspaper clippings of each individual person that had died, so not only did you see a flag with a name, but you also saw a face.  The faces of young men and women, even veteran soldiers who were so close to retirement – all killed in this crazy war.  I remember that day pretty vividly, I remember the feeling of wanting to cry washing over me as I looked at each and every individual trying to see if I knew any of them.

My best friend in Junior High’s husband was in the Army.  He had already gone to Iraq for one tour (a little over a year) and was injured pretty badly; he was even awarded a purple heart.  His wife (my old best friend) was excited when he came back from his tour, because that meant he was finally able to get out of the Army and be home with her and their new little son.  The Army approached my friend’s husband about staying in longer, paying him more for him to go and serve another tour to Iraq.  My friend was devastated when she found out he told them yes, the last thing she wanted was for him to go over there and get hurt again.  Three months before he was to come home from his second tour, he was blown up by a road side bomb, killing him and six other soldiers.  My friend was devastated, she did not even want him going on this second tour, and now she is a widow at age 26 with a son who looks exactly like her husband to raise, alone.  When I found out that he had died (and I barely knew him), I cried for days, it still makes me cry just thinking about it, because I know how much my friend loved her husband and I would never wish that upon anyone.

My current best friend’s husband was just shipped over to Afghanistan.  This is his second tour as well.  His first tour he was also injured (some of his guys were killed, he got lucky), his face and body were completely burned, they had to do surgery on him right away and they did not even have any numbing medicine so he had to deal with the pain of the surgery, I am surprised he did not go into shock. They let him rest for one month before making him go back out to the front lines.  This second tour, he is dealing with all new men, which most of them never wanted to be out their fighting in the first place, which is a scary thing, considering they are.  My best friend gets notices if something happens to any of the men in her husband’s command, already this last week (and he’s only been out there for a month now, out of twelve) she has received two notices of men being badly injured, luckily none have died.  Each time she gets one she forwards it on to me, freaked out that the next one could be him.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a husband or wife, sister or brother away fighting the war and you may never see them again.

On the news they had said we currently have 115,000 troops in Afghanistan.  They said in order to protect our military and not get them killed, we need 475,000 troops, I do not know about you, but that makes me nervous.  I want this war to end that was not even our war to begin with (except Bin Laden). I would not know what to do if something happened to my best friend’s husband.