BOB HERBERT: An Invisible War

[kevinmc]

Paul Rieckhoff looked across the crowded restaurant, which was not far from Times Square.

“During World War II,” he said, “we could be in this place and there would be a guy sitting at that table who was in the war, or the bartender had been in the war. Everybody you saw would have had a stake in the war. But right now you could walk around New York for blocks and not find anybody who has been in Iraq.

“The president can say we’re a country at war all he wants. We’re not. The military is at war. And the military families are at war. Everybody else is shopping.”

Mr. Rieckhoff is an imposing six-foot-two-inch, 245-pound former infantry officer who joined the military after graduating from Amherst College. When he came home from a harrowing tour in Iraq in 2004, he vowed to do what he could to serve the interests of the men and women who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan but have never fully gotten the support they deserve from the government or the public at large.....

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/05/bob-herbert-invisible-war.html

[bonito]

1. Paul is spot on ,read the whole article at the link

The pain is the reality for those involved, others can have apathy, but it's not the experience,
Oh yea, we have politics:sarcasm: :cry: politicians hide behind that label removing them from reality and hide from the truth, never having to face it on the surface, while others suffer.
Some rise up to face it, but few.

[jaysunb]

2. Heartbreaking....

Simply heartbreaking.