Medary.com

"Nobody is here to tell the story of our people in this war . . . "

Except citizen-journalists like Michael Yon, reporting from Anbar Province, Iraq:

On this patrol, a soldier told me the story a young Iraqi girl who got shot in a firefight that blew out some important parts of her abdomen. Others around her were killed, but she would live, with a colostomy bag and no chance of ever having children. And when the soldier visited her, he said the young girl was not worried about who shot her, or who else had died around her, or what would happen to her tomorrow. She was worried about her goats. She was in the hospital shot to pieces worrying about her goats.

This does not look like a big or intense war to people at home. It doesn’t look like that because we have so few troops actually in combat. But for those who are truly fighting, this is a brutal death match where every mistake can get them killed, or make worldwide headlines. Yet when the enemy drills out eyes or tortures people with acid, it never resonates.

There is an explanation for why when some of these young soldiers and Marines go home and people are trying to talk with them they might be caught silently staring out a window. Many people back home seem to think they have an idea what is happening here, but most do not. And nobody is here to tell the story of our people in this war.

War is horror.  Sometimes you get to choose your wars, and sometimes the war chooses you.  We have the great luxury of choosing a war "over there" as opposed to a war over here.  This one has nothing to do with Democrats and Republicans.  Some people understand this.  Others do not.  Yet.