Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Home For Christmas

I could not with clear conscience bring myself to parody the song below, especially coupled with this editorial cartoon.


I'll be Home For Christmas

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow
And mistletoe
And presents 'neath the tree

Christmas eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Christmas eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams

*
Who could answer the letters of children, wanting only one thing for Christmas - their parents to come home - alive? I for one don't believe the responsibility should fall upon Santa's shoulders.

A better question would be: Who should answer those letters? Why not forward them all to the Oval Office? Why not let the man responsible for sending their fathers and mothers into harm's way read the letters?

I'll admit it presumptuous of me to think that our Commander-in-Chief would bother reading them, let alone being capable of answering them.

I'll be home for Christmas. Most of us will be. Too many, through no wish of their own, will not.

No.1182

7 comments:

Jack K. said...

One veteran to another, I couldn't agree more.

I know we don't see eye to eye on everything, but we're together on this one.

Keep up your good works and continue to....

serve others, care about those you serve and share the love in your heart.

Serena said...

yI'm not a veteran, but I certainly agree with the sentiment.

Skunkfeathers said...

I'm not a veteran, and I have mixed feelings on this one. Whether you vets will agree or not, here 'tis: they volunteered to go where the CinC sent them, to protect and serve. They volunteered because derelicts like me were too old to be of any use on September 12, 2001.

I'm not a foreign policy expert; I don't know what the truth was about Iraq. I still don't, what with our media that long ago abandoned journalism ethics and responsibilities. But our troops are there; they deserve our support and our faith in them, not a lot of hot air out of DC about whether they can accomplish their mission or not.

I'd love to see every mother's son and daughter of them come home. We know that just ain't gonna be. I'm glad I don't have to write those letters to the little ones who've lost their father, mother, brother or sister. I'm not sure I wouldn't sound sincere or real enough, trying to explain to them why they'll never see their loved one again.

President Bush will carry this to his grave. History will judge him, as it does all presidents. Today's judgments most likely won't be those written in 30-50 years. None of it will change the losses today.

But...for most of our young lads and lasses who'll see Christmas without their father/mother/brother/sister at home this year, they will see them home again. Perhaps their parents will be able to explain it all to them.

Maybe they'll tell the kids, "I went to protect you from the kind of people that did September 11". Or maybe they'll tell them "I don't know what it was all for".

But a few of them will say something akin to what Major Dick Winters said at the conclusion of Band of Brothers: "I wasn't a hero in the war; but I served with a company of heroes".

And no one in their right mind can argue that.

God bless and Merry Christmas

Hale McKay said...

Skunkfeathers, I agree with what you wrote - and eloquently too, I might add. The quote from "Band of Brothers" says it all.

My focus or "attack" is not on our soldiers, sailors, pilots, marines, National Guard,etc., man and woman, but on our government and the administration for not planning this "war" properly. It is Vietnam all over again - fighting an enemy with no regard for their own lives.

It is an unwinnable war for all sides..

Miss Cellania said...

Not many signed up to go to Iraq. All those deployed from my area signed up for the National Guard, to provide assistance here at home in times of emergency. And yes, some signed up with the regular military after September 11 to avenge the attack on the US, but that has nothing to do with Iraq.

Bring them home.

Skunkfeathers said...

Hale, no "attack" on our soldiers in your blog was noted or read by me. You ask legitimate questions. MissC says National Guardsmen/women she knows didn't sign up to go to Iraq; probably true. But if they signed up for the military -- and the National Guard IS military, like it or not -- they signed up knowing what it COULD MEAN. The National Guard has served in every war this nation has fought since at least World War I. Guardsmen/women have served in harms' way and died, just like their Regular military cohorts.

Bottom line to me...I thank them and God Bless 'em.

Hale McKay said...

Amen, Skunkfeathers!