Sacrifice

Took a break from my assault on writing content for 450+ Timex watches to check in on one of my fave blogs, Salon's War Room. First, a question about the President's sacrifice of two days of vacation time in an attempt to look presidential in the face of one of the worst disasters in our nation's history:

But isn't it also fair to ask, what about Iraq? By our count, 71 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Bush arrived in Crawford on Aug. 2. The president didn't return to Washington on Aug. 3, when 14 Marines were killed near Haditha. He didn't return on Aug. 9, when five National Guardsmen and a soldier were killed in separate incidents. He didn't return when Iraqi negotiators failed to meet a deadline, then failed to meet a deadline, then failed to meet a deadline, then failed to meet a deadline and then failed to reach agreement on a draft constitution. Instead, the president stayed in Crawford, bicycling with Lance Armstrong and avoiding Cindy Sheehan while making the occasional side trip to Utah, to Idaho, to an RV park in Arizona and finally to an Air Force Base in California. That's where the president was this morning, commemorating the 60th anniversary of V-J Day and talking about the "sacrifice" -- he used the word seven times -- that Americans have always been willing to make in times of war.

The previous War Room post includes part of a post from the blog of Thomas J. Strickland, a sergeant in the Army National Guard:

"The insurgency is on the rise in our area, with a most impressive coordinated assault on one of my sister FOBs [forward operating bases] ... What the fuck has my chain of command been doing? We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we're being pinned down in our own fucking homes? Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area at will? What kind of fucktarded plan have we been half-assedly executing? Obviously the kind that neglects sound contact with locals. Obviously the kind that gives further distance to un-bridged gaps between soldiers and locals. Obviously the kind that has shown enough weakness when confronted by the insurgency that it has been encouraged to grow. "Back home (the USA kind) I have no home, no job, and my commander in chief is on vacation. (He's about 20 days behind Ronald Reagan right now in the race to become the most vacationing president ever. Hey, W! We all got our fingers crossed! Here's to you and two more years of presidency ... er, vacationing!) Luckily pretty much everything that is important to me can fit into the back of a truck. Luckily I just paid off one of those. "In their fear to build relationships and get out of their hiding holes, the FOBbits above me have fucked my friends and I. "We've just completed the first 1/4 of our tour. We've sent four of 24 members of this platoon home with injuries. Thankfully, we're not like another who has sent eight home in body bags ... but we got 9 months to go."

Sergeant Strickland made the ultimate sacrifice for his nation--he was killed in Iraq on August 15.