STOP LOSS and 9/11

My son and I went to see the movie "Stop Loss" last evening and this is the first anti war movie that I have seen since the tragic events of 9/11.

This movie deals with a young soldier who is returning home to Texas after his tour of duty is complete. All he wants to do is spend the rest of his days on his farm in Texas, and in one line of the movie "smell the onion truck going up the road". He is scheduled to be discharged from the Army. A Senator from Texas is there to great him and his fellow soldiers upon his arrival in his home town. The sleaze ball Senator informs him that if he ever needs anything to stop by and he would be more than willing to help.

Thus goes our hero, ready to discharge when he is handed his orders informing him that he is a subject of the Stop Loss program. This program is in effect until six months after the war is over. In other words the Military can retain their soldiers well past the time that they are suppose to be discharged. It is called "Back door drafting", essentially holding these young men and women who have honorably volunteered to serve our nation as hostages and throwing them back to a war zone. The movie goes on to show the turmoil this young man is put through, how he temporarily goes AWOL, seeks out an activist to flee the country that he loves and ultimately makes decisions that he knows in his heart is wrong and could cost him his life.

This caused my son and me to discuss what this war was all about. In the aftermath of 9/11, I just like almost every other American I spoke with wanted vengeance for the attacks on innocent lives. I wanted to see black and white, no gray middle ground; I wanted to know which countries were with the United States and which ones weren't. And those that were not I wanted them on my hit list. I am not ashamed of how I felt then, and how I feel now. I wanted to get even.

I worked for the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, and we had a deployment of people in Afghanistan Kuwait, and Iraq. The Corps of Engineers was doing the contracts for the restructure of the Iraq nation. We are spending billions of dollars on no bid contracts, and in my opinion, since I am an American and I have a right to my opinion; there was no benefit to the American people. I could no longer work for an organization that was blatantly spending billions of my and your hard earned dollars on a bunch of people that did not want us there to begin with.

I would not be so against our continued involvement in Iraq if there was a benefit that we as Americans could feel. I do not see my gasoline prices falling. I do not see billions of dollars being spent on our students for their educations. I do not see lower house rates for hard working Americans. I do not see lowering of taxes.

I see thousands of jobs going overseas, Americans out of work, I see families not being able to afford the simple luxury of having a health insurance policy. Yes there are a lot of things wrong with this country, but we are still the best thing going. I would just rather see our dollars being spent here rather than overseas.

I would rather stop spending those billions of dollars restructuring Iraq and fix the roads here that hove pot holes in them. Pay for the medications that our elderly need. Take care of our own children. Lower our gasoline prices retrain our men and women when their jobs are downsized so that they can become productive members of society.