We can’t press reset and start again.

To some this “war” has become increasingly similar to the popular video games they obsessively play. Almost simultaneously to the war beginning there were new video games featuring air assaults eerily similar to the real battles going on in Iraq. As Alliance troops hit the ground running and were met with gorilla resistance, the newest games mimicked the real life hand to hand fighting. As caves and bunkers were searched and bombed to ferret out Osama and his followers a new bread of games was born. And so on, and so on. I actually know people who believe they have figured out ways to end the fighting and “win” with carefully planned out offensives that they worked out and then executed on their Sony Playstations and Xbox units. What a bunch of morons.

We still ARE actually at war. Maybe not with any flashy international declarations, but there are still bullets being shot, bombs exploding everywhere, and lives, …. many more then before, being lost. Watching CNN for battlefield updates, something that became fashionable during the first Gulf War in the early 90’s, has become stale and boring. And to be honest, there really IS NOT any regular reporting. We have become so callous to the events in Iraq (and generally anywhere outside of the continuous 48 U.S. states) that if there are any actual updates from the front lines they are sandwiched somewhere between stories about the latest NFL players scandal and what trouble Lindsay Lohan got into the night before.

Isn’t it wonderful. You can try and try again on the games, using your endless supply of weapons, artillery and manpower, until you win the confrontations, and eventually the war. There is no pulling of men and women from their families, no skyrocketing national bills, and of course no actual losses of life. It’s a fantasy where we are always right and with a little practice – we always win. It’s the perfect American attitude. It seems ideal, but it’s not real.

What is still happening in Iraq is real. Only those who have been actually watching know the following: we are still losing American lives at an alarming rate. Much of it gets reported for around thirty seconds (if that) and then forgotten. For my generation this has all the makings of our own brand-spanking-new Vietnam. I know a little bit about the Vietnam War and even liked the movie Platoon with Charlie Sheen, but I would feel highly unqualified to speak about something that happened when I was being toilet trained. This is different. This is right now and before all of our eyes.

Reports from early battles were favorable. Casualties were amazingly low with the endless aerial attacks. It soon became apparent that little had changed in the decade since the first Gulf War. The sophistication of our weapons and advanced technology put us miles ahead of the military capacity of Iraq. American planes and rockets were rarely challenged, and the damage inflicted severe. This was our war, fought our way. We were winning, but we were not looking ahead. Eventually we had to come out of the air and walk on the ground. The same dirt and sand the Iraq solders were walking on. They were digging in and waiting. Ready to fight a ground war their way.

That is the problem. Even with the most highly advanced military in the world we are still not gorilla fighters willing to go to Kamikaze measures to win at all costs. We value the life of our soldiers over the death of one of the enemies’ fighters. That is why it is so frustrating to ever see anyone who does not support our efforts and our troops. They are fighting against a foe that is infinitely more willing to die then we are.

I always favored President Bush’s decision to go to war initially, but it makes me shudder to think that we may have pulled the bulk of our forces out of Iraq too early so positive gains would be shown in political approval rating polls. Is there even the slightest possibility that American lives are still being lost now because we dramatically scaled back our use of deadly force due to the concerns of domestic policy advisors about winning a second term? Of course we are. Are families losing their sons and daughters because of future foreign policy implications of a negative American impression in the rest of the planet’s eyes? Of course they are.

While there is no way to accurately prove this I am willing to bet that there would have been less deaths on our side if we were still dropping bombs like the rain over Iraq and using all of our available resources. One thing that is for sure is that there would be a whole lot more dead Iraq citizens. Is that the politically correct view? Absolutely not. Will this anger some people? Absolutely. But maybe it is time we started fighting the war the way it is being fought against us and saved American lives.

If the tables were turned, and it was Iraq occupying our country, would they “let up”? No way. Does anyone think Saddam, a man who used deadly weapons on his own people and has supported terrorists, would have had any regard for our innocent victims? No way. I would rather see thousands of enemy deaths before one more American soldier is wounded or killed.

On television the so-called experts argue about proof of this or that, justifications for military advancements and the goal of our government. We are past the point of arguing “why” we are in Iraq. We should only be worried about protecting the Americans who are still there. Support them. Provide them with the resources, manpower and materials needed to put everyone in safer position and bring more of them home sooner. It is to late to go backwards, so let’s concentrate on moving forward.

The newest video games are even more amazing. Last night I died eight times before I finally figured out how to blow up the enemy’s tank. Once past the tank I went on to be killed five more times by a fighter plane that looked just like the ones being used in Iraq. At that point I gave up for the night and finally turned the game off. I can try again another day.

We can’t press reset and start again.

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