There’s something special about watching that collage of colors explode in the sky against a backdrop of patriotic music. I, inevitably, think about the sacrifices made so I can have such a seemingly inconsequential right on the fourth day of every July.
I guess I could also mention our fireworks fun was preceded by a brief trip to the Traveling Vietnam Wall exhibit. It’s hard to believe just a collection of names can mean so much.
My older brother also leaves for Iraq this month. Fittingly, we got the chance to bid him farewell on the Fourth of July. I’m guessing the thought of going to war has become old hat for my brother – this will be his third major conflict.
At the same time, I will say his latest departure comes with more apprehension on my part. The work being done in Iraq is necessary but messy and dangerous. It seems a far cry from the precision-guided conflicts of the past where causalities were low and the conflict was short - far too short for spirited discussion about the intent of the mission.
But even to say that is a misnomer. War is always dangerous, the risks are always real and lives will inevitably be lost.
I laugh at the axiom of an “unpopular war.” I don’t think the idea of sending our beloved men and women into a war zone should ever be popular. I know it isn’t for the family members and friends they leave behind.
I will say that I find it ironic that the most criticism for a war comes from those with no personal stake in the conflict. While those that must serve and the ones they leave behind seem so resolute in the task at hand.
My argument is cliché to the point of perhaps annoyance. It is a hope that the arguments about why we are in Iraq are second to supporting those who are actually in
Iraq. I don’t buy into the Toby Keithian-argument that questioning a war makes you less patriotic. I think those kind of debates are the basis of a democracy.
But to borrow another overused and some would contend nonsensical cliché, “It is what it is.”
We are there, we will be there for sometime (regardless of who our next president is) and a lot of brave men and women will continue to defend our right to complain about rising gas prices, higher food costs and traffic after the fireworks show (that’s a personal one).
So did I get some chills as Lee Greenwood belted out “Proud to be an American” this year?
You bet. I wish we all did.
God bless my brother and everybody else who serves with him.
