DEJA VU

     Looking at the paper this morning, all I felt was despair and deja vu. Here we go again. Iraq is falling apart and our country is running in to save the day again, whether it will be via air strikes or boots on the ground - only time will tell. But once again, here we are in a country for which we bled and it was all for nought. In fact, it appears to be worse as the invasion seems to be a well planned incursion of Islamic terrorists and extremists pouring over the border from Syria. Will this be the fate of another country where we are bleeding every day - Afghanistan? And the question is - For What? All we get are complaints, obstructionism and back sliding as soon as we leave a pacified area.
     That which comes too easily is valued less. That is a well known thought voiced by many. Was it too easy for the people of these countries to claim the initial victory and then sit back and do nothing, or worse, fall back into tribal and clan groups, family against family? Was it too easy for them to fall back now into the backward traditions of mistreatment of women, violation of their rights as people?
     I do not know all the details but it does not really matter. All I feel is a sense of despair and disillusionment. All the men and women, all that money and equipment, all the corruption and now all the backward movement. Again, for what?
     Once we had beaten down Al Queda in the first place, and especially once we had killed Bin Laden, why did we stay? We have no more place there and until people in place truly want to form a democracy, a national democracy, not a tribal one, then we have no place there. People have to want something, participate in gaining it, achieving it, if it is to be of value - fighting, writing, social outreach - whatever.
     I feel sorry for those people in those countries who thought democracy had finally arrived and stepped to the front. Now where are they? And where is the country? And where is our country now? Our boys and girls are coming home with much combat stress, more so than any other war. They are surviving horrific wounds and trauma, lifetime wounds, and what have we accomplished?
     We support our troops and welcome them back, a much better attitude than we had back in the Vietnam era. Back then so many of these soldiers, draftees, were abused verbally and physically, when they returned. We cannot fall into that same situation, but perhaps it is time again for some protests against this war that is nebulous, and seemingly purposeless and goalless at this point in time.
     Deja vu. Here we go again.