I have nothing brilliant to add so here is a collection of articles and posts I think are worth reading this day.
Daily Kos: They were Soldiers Once
On the effects on our troups when asked to do something wrong.
Palaima: What's the truth of war? (Austin-American Statesman Commentary) On how difficult it is for a soldier to describe to a civilian their particular experience.
Doonesbury is listing the names of our soldiers who have died this year.
The truley horrific thing about this war is our soldiers are dieing for little more than Hubris. Our President believed the siren song of the Neo-Cons; they were wrong.
I'll finish with a quote from Shakespeare, Henry V:
BATES. He may show what outward courage he will;
but I believe, as cold a night as 'tis,
he could wish himself in Thames up to the neck;
and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures,
so we were quit here.KING HENRY. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King:
I think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is.BATES. Then I would he were here alone;
so should he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.KING HENRY. I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here
alone, howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds;
methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the King's
company, his cause being just and his quarrel honourable.WILLIAMS. That's more than we know.
BATES. Ay, or more than we should seek after;
for we know enough if we know we are the King's subjects.
If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us.WILLIAMS. But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a
heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads,
chopp'd off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day
and cry all 'We died at such a place'- some swearing, some crying
for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some
upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I
am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how
can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their
argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black
matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were
against all proportion of subjection.
