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Mon. May 28, 2007

Not Just Another Holiday

I hope you’ve had a nice holiday weekend. We’ve been to a wedding and a barbeque, and otherwise generally relaxed. And that generates a twinge of guilt in me.

Because it’s not such a relaxing time for many families, like the Worthington and Ardron families here in Georgia:

Georgia reached a grim milestone Thursday — the death of the 101st soldier from the state who was taking part in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Pvt. Robert A. Worthington, 19, of Rex, was killed in Taji, Iraq on Tuesday, according to his father Robert Worthington. The Pentagon has not yet confirmed the death. More information on his death was not immediately available.

Word of Worthington’s death comes hours after the Pentagon announced the death of the state’s 100th soldier.

Sgt. Brian D. Ardron, 32, of Acworth, was killed Monday in Baghdad along with two other soldiers in his unit when multiple roadside bombs exploded near their vehicle, the Pentagon reported.

AJC: Georgia military deaths reach 100

And it’s an absolutely heartbreaking time for Andrew J. Bacevich:

Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.

In joining the Army, my son was following in his father’s footsteps: Before he was born, I had served in Vietnam. As military officers, we shared an ironic kinship of sorts, each of us demonstrating a peculiar knack for picking the wrong war at the wrong time. Yet he was the better soldier — brave and steadfast and irrepressible.

I know that my son did his best to serve our country. Through my own opposition to a profoundly misguided war, I thought I was doing the same. In fact, while he was giving his all, I was doing nothing. In this way, I failed him.

Washington Post: I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty

At times our country seems wracked in division over Iraq. Today isn’t a day for that. Your personal opinion of the war has no bearing on the pain being felt by thousands of families who today remember someone killed in Iraq. Or the millions of families who today remember someone lost in Vietnam, or Korea, or some other distant land where US forces served.

Today, I can’t help but have them on my mind.