The Clarion
Editorials
We Are Still at War/Conflict
By Heather Ochse, editor-m-chief
Whe*e. we Uke o. no. a or more «.y a conffict m
„any people seem to talk about te or .f *ey do they tog.
than discuss mote in depth the diletnma our a es an , beine displayed by many regarding the number
The problem many Americans have is the appare p y ^ because they refuse to wrn on
of innocent men and women that are dying for our country ^ people but the fact remains, it is
the news knowing what diey will see is unpleasant. It is not pleasant to a peop
still out there. .nd thev have been in existence since the beginning of dme. It does
War and conflicts are an act of rage and they suffering and death as a result of these
not mean we have to like it, because like many oAers I am ag ' think it is a good idea to talk
aets. Growmg up m a mffitary famtly, I reserve Ae right to say thts. We do.
about what bothers us in the world we live in to ay. ,,nswer is no but here is some information that
Do we have a say in who goes to war or a eonfhct? The answer no,
may make you realize what you should be h 19 433 U.S. service members have died: 298 from
According to the USA Today in 200 , ® ° Xhe numbers are sriU rising
hostile fire and 135 from accidents and non-com a r • out there dying from the current conflict in
This may not seem huge to some, but to me, my members are young, 18
the Middle East... the Afghanistan, and Iraq con cts o taken away too early,
to 25, *at have not even begun to Eve life because eir ,„„en in the Middle East, some of the
In order to boost and to enhance the low morale bnef visits referred to as
troops are being sent home for rest and relaxation an time. In areas of the United States like Camp
“leave” in the military are often over in as lit e as two w hostilities on the Middle East. In the case
Lejeune, NC, troops come home and leave every so ^^l,day some had to depart back to their
of some who recendy came back just wee s prior (3 tour of duty or rotation for many of our
combat units before Thanksgiving officially e war/conflict. A six month deployment
servicemen has been six months for those invo ve seem like a good deal compared to the newly
may not be ideal for many families of these serviceme Thanksgivmg a difficult holiday
released poUcy of a one year tour of duty that many birthdays to come for our service personnel
to face, but so will Christmas, New Years, Valentine s Day and
and their families. , Thanksgiving Day. Bush surprised the troops in
A surprise visit by President G=orge Bush was rn word of
Baghdad with lots of food, includmg the mrkey. As Bush ^
‘“^^'^eUnitedStatesand the UnltedNationsarework^gtogether to provide better^tureelecttons.lra.
now that Saddam Hussem is no longer in power. of Shiites have marched to demand direct
Accordmg to the CNN Washington Bureau . The Umted Sutes mamtains that it is too
elections, putting pressure on the Umte ® deadline, but has asked the United Nauons to gauge t e
difficult to organize direct elecuons before the ju y
possibiHty of direct elections widun the timetable. .. .Contmued C4
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