It is hard to keep your spirits up when people are trying to
kill you. Unfortunately, I know first hand, but that’s another
story. My point is right now madmen and extremists are trying to
kill our sons and daughters.
Yes, we know our soldiers are dying, but we hang on to hope for
the future and not the
”
doom and gloom
”
report.
It is hard to keep your spirits up when people are trying to kill you. Unfortunately, I know first hand, but that’s another story. My point is right now madmen and extremists are trying to kill our sons and daughters.
Yes, we know our soldiers are dying, but we hang on to hope for the future and not the “doom and gloom” report.
Right now, a soldier needs to see a future beyond the combat zone. The key to keeping morale up is knowing when you’re coming home because a soldier needs to wrap his thoughts around things waiting for him – friends, family, home, college, etc. These are the things that keep a soldier going and help keep him acting carefully out in the field.
Jim and I put together a “family monthly newsletter” to send Ryan in Iraq. It will give him a sense of belonging. It has the latest family squabbles and gossip on his siblings, information on nieces and nephews and all the other normal occurrences of daily life at Linda’s Last Chance Ranch, color photos included.
Soldiers do get real newspapers and other reading material sent to them and, well, sometimes they react.
In one letter, my son specifically mentioned the media.
“What’s with the media?” he wrote. “I guess we’re not that important anymore (not much is really happening here).”
At home, the military families know the death count – we don’t have to be told, at least not the way some of these newscasters carry on.
One death is one too many. Who would disagree with that? Remember, it’s not what we say, but how we say it. Media superstars will deliver the same line each time with the same tones and facial expressions and that’s supposed to make the audience feel connected.
“Another soldier has died. Over 100 soldiers have died since major combat was declared over,” General Richard Meyers said just last week. “The war isn’t over.”
More than 2,300 military and civilians died at Pearl Harbor and more than 3,000 on Sept. 11. We need to be thankful the death toll in Iraq is low.
I think about how fortunate we are to have the medical technology and equipment to help keep our soldiers alive, compared to what it must have been like during previous wars like the Civil War and World War II, where the casualties certainly exceed the number of deaths in Iraq.
We train these young people to defend our country and to help our allies fight against these insane monsters because if they don’t, who will?
Incidentally, did anyone take a good look in the eyes of the al-Qaida terrorist who delivered a threat in English on Monday? That was one scary lunatic. This is what our soldiers are up against. Shoot first and ask questions later because that will be the only hope a person has to stay alive around that fanatic.
Another obligation I feel toward my son is to stay on top of the news from all around the world because when he comes home and wants to talk, I will have some minuscule knowledge of the situation. That should be interesting to compare, but that too, is another story.
Frankly, it is an American obligation to keep morale up among our troops. They need support without the politics.
In the meantime, a soldier needs to look forward to something, to believe that, even though thousands of miles away from home, they are part of people’s lives, their plans and their activities. That is the light at the end of the tunnel needed to endure and survive dangerous times.
