blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Yesterday I saw my daughter for the first time in 3 years. She's a SFC in the Army and watching her walking towards me at the airport in her uniform brought tears to me eyes. Sergeant First-Class .. imagine that. Some spend 20 years in the military and never attain E-7, yet she did it in 12. She's coming home from a year in Korea and she's going to be stationed right here in Georgia.
When she joined the Army I was so mad at her it took everything I had to keep the top of my head from exploding. After all my emphasis on grades, education, and college, how could she do this to me? After spending her entire life with a politically active father who constantly talked about the evil of war, how could she do this to me? I raised her alone and saw this as my failure as a parent. Some father I was. Perhaps men shouldn't raise daughters alone.
It took a long time for me to accept that she wasn't doing this to me, but for her .. something I always knew but couldn't accept. But watching her walking towards me yesterday released a hurt I hid deep inside me since she joined the military. Perhaps I didn't do so bad after all. Perhaps men can raise daughters.
Mr. President, my daughter has served three tours in Iraq, and like most people who have loved ones in combat zones, my nightmares were horrific. As I listened to you today talking about your new Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy I could hear echoes of Vietnam and Iraq. One of the biggest reasons why I did not vote for you is because I fear your need to look presidential by talking and acting tough. I fear that you will lead America into another disastrous war with consequences worse that our misadventure in Iraq.
You're sending 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan with another 4,000 to follow soon. You're calling for more civilians in Afghanistan who will become targets for the opposition. Other nations are reluctant to send anymore troops there, so it will, as was Iraq, remain basically an American war with American troops doing most of the dying.
Your plan appears more of the same, pouring more troops and more money into an unconquerable region. Your plan seems contingent on America running the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of whom have come to accomodation with the Taliban, and both with populations that have no desire to have their country run by Americans.
I recognize my daughter has willingly taken an oath to serve as she is commanded to serve, and by her rise in the ranks, she has proven it is an oath she takes seriously. But as a father bursting with pride as I look at my daughter, I only ask that you consider what if it were your daughters.
Our military is made up of sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers of every stripe all across America. Their lives are valuable, much too valuable to continue to waste in unneccessary war.
When she joined the Army I was so mad at her it took everything I had to keep the top of my head from exploding. After all my emphasis on grades, education, and college, how could she do this to me? After spending her entire life with a politically active father who constantly talked about the evil of war, how could she do this to me? I raised her alone and saw this as my failure as a parent. Some father I was. Perhaps men shouldn't raise daughters alone.
It took a long time for me to accept that she wasn't doing this to me, but for her .. something I always knew but couldn't accept. But watching her walking towards me yesterday released a hurt I hid deep inside me since she joined the military. Perhaps I didn't do so bad after all. Perhaps men can raise daughters.
Mr. President, my daughter has served three tours in Iraq, and like most people who have loved ones in combat zones, my nightmares were horrific. As I listened to you today talking about your new Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy I could hear echoes of Vietnam and Iraq. One of the biggest reasons why I did not vote for you is because I fear your need to look presidential by talking and acting tough. I fear that you will lead America into another disastrous war with consequences worse that our misadventure in Iraq.
You're sending 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan with another 4,000 to follow soon. You're calling for more civilians in Afghanistan who will become targets for the opposition. Other nations are reluctant to send anymore troops there, so it will, as was Iraq, remain basically an American war with American troops doing most of the dying.
Your plan appears more of the same, pouring more troops and more money into an unconquerable region. Your plan seems contingent on America running the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of whom have come to accomodation with the Taliban, and both with populations that have no desire to have their country run by Americans.
I recognize my daughter has willingly taken an oath to serve as she is commanded to serve, and by her rise in the ranks, she has proven it is an oath she takes seriously. But as a father bursting with pride as I look at my daughter, I only ask that you consider what if it were your daughters.
Our military is made up of sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers of every stripe all across America. Their lives are valuable, much too valuable to continue to waste in unneccessary war.
