Was my son's death in Afghanistan a price worth paying?

[n2doc]

By Stuart Alexander of The Independent
Monday, 30 May 2011


Marine Sam Alexander, 28, who was killed in a bomb blast in Helmand last Friday

The call, when it comes, is so stunning that everything goes numb and you shake. But the call, at 6.15pm going into a bank holiday weekend, is not a shock. It is the devastating realisation of all the worries and fears that gnaw at everyone, day and night, who has family, friends and colleagues in a theatre of war.

The other gnawing internal conflict for those same people, who support their loved ones 100 per cent in the job they are being asked to do, is that they may not be quite so enthusiastic about the policy which sends them there.

My son Sam, at 28, married to Claire with a son Leo, is dead. He was hoping to be given brief leave to be at Leo's first birthday, on 21 July, to see him take his first steps. An improvised explosive device has put paid to that, as it has for his lieutenant, Ollie Augustin. The last time Sam was written up in this newspaper he had taken a bullet through his helmet but escaped injury after leading a defensive firefight that allowed his shot and injured troop leader to be dragged to safety.

...

But, God knows, I loved you Sam and always will. And, if a faraway nondescript patch of rock and dust has claimed your flesh and blood, it can never claim your spirit, never destroy the bonds we had.

It is time the politicians were as professional as the men, including you, and the women they send to their deaths.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/was-my-sons-death-in-afghanistan-a-price-worth-paying-2290769.html
:cry:

[CelticThunder]

1. If he were my son the answer would be a great big fat NO

[sudopod]

2. .

[provis99]

3. He died a pointless death in a pointless war.

[elocs]

4. That's a tough one, but when you choose to enlist in the military

you have to know you may be sent in harm's way and you do not get to pick and choose where you will go. You are at the mercy of someone else's decision.

Just like if you choose to be a cop and you're sent to a drug bust that might be dangerous, you have to go no matter what you might think of your orders. The same thing with being a firefighter where you could lose your life trying to protect a building, not people. In all these cases it could be asked "was it worth it?"

I can remember many years ago, maybe when I was a kid, hearing Paul Harvey say that wars will never end until old men cannot feel safe in sending young men off to die somewhere far away. That sounds true to me.

[msongs]

5. "Forward he cried from the rear and the front rank died..." nt

[lillypaddle]

6. Bring them home

it's way past time.

[MissDeeds]

7. Your son's sacrifice was great

and I share in your loss. In my humble opinion, Sam served his country far better than his country served him. He died for something true, noble and honorable. He will forever be a hero. I hope you take comfort from that, n2doc. You and Sam are in my thoughts and prayers.

:cry: :grouphug:

[n2doc]

8. I wasn't the writer

I have a young son and hope to God I never have to face what the author is facing.

[Faygo Kid]

9. Heartbreaking. Not worth it. Bring them home.

It's time to end this endless war. If we haven't achieved our goals by now, we never will.

Get out. I remember another war, and marched against it. I was right then, and I am right now.

Get out.

[gratuitous]

10. Of course it wasn't worth it

Because whatever dubious gains we've made by killing so many thousands weren't worth even one of the lives wasted. Which is why we have to have "holidays" like today, awash in the red, white and blue, with strains of martial music, jet flyovers, and flags, flags, flags everywhere. Young people must be inculcated with the nonsense of militarism. They have to see it in magazines, hear it on radio, and see it on TV several times a day, every day. Every one in uniform is a hero, and the highest aspiration of every citizen is to wear one.

If someone tries to tell you the United States is a Christian nation, tell him the true national religion practiced in this country is in service to the myth of redemptive violence. It's what we spend our money on, it's what we raise our young people it, and it's the unifying story that binds our society together. Question militarism, violence and war, and you're in for the same treatment heretics got during the Inquisition, and for the same reason.

[Citizen Worker]

11. Grief and sorrow do not recognize national boundaries or linguistic differences. Grief and sorrow

are universal. Were we to learn this it might help put an end to wars.

[GeorgeGist]

12. The beneficiary should say yes.

But they won't. Nor will they apologize for the waste.