Posted on 08/23/2009 5:13:13 PM PDT by Andrei Nana
TOO STUBBORN TO DIE! WHAT SHOULD WE LEARN FROM AFGHANISTAN & IRAQ?
By Andrei Nana
We have all heard from our friends, family, and society at large, that when it comes to life, we will repeatedly make the same mistakes we made in the past unless we learn from those mistakes we make now. It sounds gloomy and depressing to consider the possibility of that continuous repetition, especially when we like to think of ourselves as always progressing. However, that repetition appears to exist. We also heard from these same people that there is a sliver lighting in everything, and we should look for it. Put this two together and we have a dilemma. Thus, the question begs to be asked, what should we learn from Afghanistan and Iraq?
I am not one to debate the political and military mistakes made by our leaders. As a former soldier blessed to experience and survive a tour of duty in Iraq, I can probably discuss those mistakes very well, however there is a much more important lesson to be learned. The lesson to be attentive to, is that in order to win you have to be stubborn, you have to be too stubborn to die.
In today’s military and political environment, winning in Afghanistan and Iraq is an illusion, or impossibility at best. In the best case scenario, we, the US, can achieve some of the objectives proposed. Nevertheless there will never be a victory. We have already lost so much, so many soldiers died, and even more are hurt and changed forever. Many of the families of these soldiers had to support the war in a manner entirely too unfair to them, and many of these families we broken or severely damaged as a result of the war experience. So what is to learn? Where is the silver lighting?
The lesson is stubbornness. The silver lighting is learning to use this stubbornness in our favor. The Afghans and Iraqis will win the war because they stay alive, they are “too stubborn to die,” they will continue to live with stubbornness despite the US presence there, despite the bombs from our planes, despite the bullets from our rifles, despite Al-Qaida’s pressure and mass murder committed against the civilian population through suicide attacks and targeted killings.
We wonder what it takes to make a person in those countries to give-up? For the most part, many Afghans and Iraqis live without enough food, electricity, running water, health care, jobs, are surrounded by misery, death and suffering. More than that, there is little hope for a better future, at least not in the immediate future. So how can they live? What motivates them to get up in the mornings? What makes them laugh? What makes them love?
In the US, as a society we have for the most part food, electricity, running water, some level of health care, and jobs with paths to careers. We are not surrounded by the misery of Afghanistan or Iraq, we are safer and with less suffering. We think we are better and many times look down on the Afghans and the Iraqis for being part of the third world, yet we complain all the time, we forget to love, we forget to live and we are ready to give up. The question we have to ask ourselves is why are we better for living in one of the best countries in the world? How can we justify having everything and at the same time being so ready to give up? The Afghans and Iraqis would trade their places with us in a second without question. Would we trade our places with them?
What I hear in everyday conversations with people are excuses for giving up. There are no REAL reasons, just excuses. Maybe it is because the new generation grew up in an environment where everybody wins, and everybody gets a trophy just for showing up. Society at large feels entitled to get everything, “just because.” We are losing the wars we fight, we are losing the battle with obesity, depression is increasing in the US, we are losing our humanity. A friend of mine told me something the other day when I congratulated him for his daughter’s acceptance at Harvard University. He told me, “she is very smart and I am very happy for her, however I want to make sure she will not lose her humanity…” I never thought in those terms before, and the conversation with my friend was definitely a new perspective.
Some of us, who are very fortunate in the U.S., are so preoccupied with reaching success that we are losing our humanity. We forget to love, we forget to enjoy life and help others. Everything becomes a business decision, including our personal relationships. On the other hand, some of the people less fortunate, who had very few chances in life and made mistakes are losing their humanity by becoming more cruel and violent every day. It always amazes me when I watch a “human story” on television, about Iraqis or Afghans who are willing to give everything up to help a neighbor or even a US soldier. Maybe their attitude of “never give up - do the RIGHT thing” makes so much more sense, and we as a society, could learn to adopt that to our daily lives.
This country was founded on the principle of the “American Dream,” however somewhere along the way we lost that. Can you imagine us being too stubborn to be obese and instead, work out to become healthier? Too stubborn to get depressed and enjoy every minute of our lives with the loved ones without addiction to prescription drugs or other drugs? Too stubborn to give up on a relationship because of social norms and help others to be more tolerant and open minded and just by loving more? Too stubborn to carry forward the prejudice of our parents and instead embrace diversity? Too stubborn to give up on our education and instead learn more about the world and ourselves? Too stubborn to be overwhelmed by debt and instead work hard to pay off the debt and live a more simple and safe life? Too stubborn to complain all the time and instead actually do something? Too stubborn to allow hypocritical individuals lead the country, and instead elect our leaders based on their character and record.
Maybe then, and only then we can start winning our wars again!
What did we learn from Iraq and Afghanistan? Let’s see... We should never started the political correctness Bull$hitand and #2, we should have dispensed a few Nukes over those two places and annihilated every last one of those F ing Rag heads.
No more Nana?
Zotted already, a WTF? rant
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