HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it passing strange that the name of the most recent Republican occupant of the Oval Office is never mentioned by the members of his own party, not even in whispers?  Republicans reach back to Ronald Reagan and even as far back as Abraham Lincoln, but George W Bush has been effectively airbrushed out of Republican history.  W has not been seen nor heard from during the campaign, nor at the convention.  Which Republican candidate for public office trumpets an endorsement from George W Bush?  He's the invisible man.  Come to think of it, the Republicans are silent about W's father, George H W Bush as well.  It's as though the two presidencies never happened.  And that's not to speak of Richard Nixon, whose presidency never happened, either. 

Democrats have not forgotten W and often speak of the wars, the deficit, the tax cuts for the rich, and the economy in deep recession, on the brink of a depression, that he bequeathed to the country and to the president who came after.  How ironic that Republicans blame Obama for the last 12 years with nary a mention of George W Bush.  As Democrats say, the election of Romney would take us back to W's policies, but "on steroids". 

A HUMAN FACE ON THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

From NOLA.com:

A Harvey [Louisiana] native who returned last month to Afghanistan for his second tour of duty in the war-torn country was killed Sunday in the dangerous Nad ‘Ali district, the Department of Defense said.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Daniel L. Douville, a 33-year-old career airman, died from injuries he suffered from an improvised explosive device.

Douville spent the last seven months with his family vacationing in the Bahamas and cheering on his three children at sporting events near their Fort Walton Beach, Fla., home before his redeployment.

Family was the only thing Douville loved more than his military life, said LaShana Douville, his wife of 14 years.

What a lovely family.

O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our prayers on behalf of your servant Daniel, and grant him an entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our brother Daniel. We thank you for giving him to his family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on their earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console those who mourn. Give them faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence they may continue their course on earth, until, by your call, they are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

BRING THEM HOME

From the Los Angeles Times:

An explosion in southern Afghanistan on Thursday killed eight U.S. troops, officials said, an unusually large toll for a single incident.

Earlier in the day, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, announced the death of a service member in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan's east. The cause of the crash was under investigation, the coalition said.

A Pentagon official confirmed that the eight killed in the south were U.S. soldiers. Most of the troops in the south and the east are Americans. U.S. troops make up about two-thirds of the overall NATO force.

Coalition fatalities stand at 2482. We are not going to win the war in Afghanistan. What is the coalition accomplishing now? Are they even holding the line? Our departure will be a negotiated departure. With whom will we negotiate? The greater number of insurgents are Taliban. Unfortunately, that is the reality, and it is likely that we will negotiate with the Taliban. Whomever it is that we will negotiate with, why not now, rather than later before more troops are killed or wounded, before more Afghan civilians are killed or wounded? Why not now before we spend more billions which could be put to far better use than making war?

It's time to bring the troops home.

Shown above is the faded bumper sticker which I placed on my car at the beginning of the Iraq War. I no longer have the car, so the bumper sticker is gone, too. Originally, the colors were bright yellow, red, and blue. The photo of my old bumper sticker still serves to make my point.

May the troops who died rest in peace and rise in glory.

May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that surpasses understanding to all who love the fallen.

May the God of peace fill our hearts with such a longing for peace that we do all in our power to settle differences with choices other than war.

WAR - WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

From ABCNews:

An Afghan Air Corps pilot, angered by an argument with nine American trainers at Kabul airport, pulled a gun on the Americans, disarmed them and methodically killed them, officials said today.

The shooter then apparently shot and killed himself.

The Afghan military said the gunman was a 20 year veteran of the Afghan Air Corps who had gotten in an argument with the American trainers during a meeting in a conference room at the Afghan Air Force headquarters.
....

The dead included eight U.S military personnel and one American contractor. Five Afghan soldiers were also injured in the shooting, said Bahader.

It was the deadliest incident so far of an Afghan ally turning against his coalition partners, officials said. This is the seventh time this year that coalition soldiers or Afghan security forces have been killed by either members of the Afghan security force or insurgents impersonating them.

What the hell is the goal of the US and its coalition partners in Afghanistan? We are engaged in a war seemingly without end at great expense in lives and money. The British tried to get control of Afghanistan and failed. The Russians tried and failed, at the expense of the collapse of their empire. Why can't we learn from history? We should have destroyed the Taliban's training camps after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and then left the country.

Here we are 10 years later having lost 2436 lives, probably not counting those mentioned above, with numbers more wounded, and having spent a total of $455.4 billion, and what have we gained?