Tom Wieliczka: Stop Using Our Solders As Pawns

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Tom Wieliczka

On this Memorial Day, I open The New York Times, only to read that our soldiers go out with, and train, Iraqi soldiers by day and then the American soldiers find out at night that the insurgents they have just killed were the same Iraqi soldiers that had been with during the day!

Meanwhile, the same Republicans that just pushed for "no timelines" in the Iraq spending bill are now telling Bush -- one day later -- that he had better have a plan to get our troops out of Iraq by September.

As Senator Jeff Sessions and Senator Mitch McConnell, speaking for Republicans, said on Friday: ''I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it.'

So let me get this straight. Sessions, McConnell, and other Republicans have "no problem" using our soldiers as "pawns" in their chess game of war funding, just as long as Bush gets these "pawns" out of Iraq early enough before the next election. That's outrageous!

How many soldiers are going to get killed or maimed between now and September? How many?

Where is the television media, questioning McConnell and other "Stay-In-Iraq" Republicans about this political ploy? Where is the print media, writing about this in the newspaper and newspaper editorials about the politicians putting their re-election above the safety of the soldiers?

And most important, where are the Capitulating Democrats, who should be slamming these Republicans to the floor like an angry wrestler for even thinking that our soldiers are mere "pawn" pieces in a Republican Chess Game?

Sorry Republicans but this war -- any war -- is not some computer game for your childhood-playing enjoyment!

This is A Real War, where soldiers are really being killed! This is A Real War, where soldiers are really being maimed for life! This is A Real War, where soldiers are really getting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which will affect them for the rest of their lives! This is A Real War, where families of soldiers are being impacted in a real hard way! Those are Real Arms and Real Legs being blown off of the soldiers in battle. That's A Real Brain that was just blown away onto an Iraqi street by an IED.

So stop holding our soldiers hostage and treating them like "pawns" in your sick, fantasy "computer game."

How many more soldiers need to get injured or die to satisfy the Republican thirst and appetite for their bloody war game? How many?

And while the Republicans play "computer chess" with our "pawned" soldiers, Bush and Cheney continue to let "Osama been Forgotten" and his cohorts remain free from any harm, as they bask in the Afghanistan/Pakistan sunshine and plan their next attack on America.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

Tom Wieliczka
Windsor Locks, CT

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