The war at home
By Wade Kwon
Alabama has always distinguished itself in ways both humbling and humiliating. But its service record has always been above reproach, volunteering in high numbers for guard duty.
That patriotism carries a high cost.
On Oct. 22, the military death toll in the Iraq war reached a milestone. George T. Alexander, Jr., of Clanton, died in a Texas hospital after being injured five days earlier in Samarra, Iraq. He was the 2,000th soldier killed in the ongoing war.
He was my age, 34, an Army staff sergeant who met the same fate as many of his comrades: in the line of duty, by a bomb, far away from home. An Army man through and through, he served for 14 years, stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga., and working in places such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
We tend to forget the men and women asked to fight for survival in the U.S.-inflamed quagmire that is Iraq. Soldiers make better symbols and political footballs than actual people. So noble is our respect for them and their service that we tend to pay it lip service, furrow our brows appropriately when the latest casualty reports come in.
Or we ignore the war entirely.
It takes a Katrina to show the catastrophic deadly consequences of arbitrary leadership, when more than a thousand people die and hundreds of thousands are displaced. Meanwhile, the two-and-a-half (and counting) year war in Iraq trudges along — with only a round figure like 2,000 to shake some of us out of complacency.
More than three-fourths of the soldiers died in combat in Iraq. The number of troops wounded is more than 15,000, and nearly half are so seriously hurt that they cannot return to duty.
The buck stops with George W. Bush. When will the killing end?
We recognize Staff Sgt. Alexander because he gave his life for a country that has done plenty wrong. Because he served so his family, a wife, an 8-year-old son, and a 5-year-old daughter, could have a better life. Because he’s an Alabama boy.
Be grateful, America, that No. 2,000 wasn’t from your hometown or home state. It’s a dubious honor at best. His death marks the 35th casualty from Alabama.
Alexander’s funeral will be tomorrow in Clanton.
