Wanda Watkins Meet Cindy Sheehan
There's a debate going on in the blogosphere that a smarter person would just steer clear of, but there's never a smarter person around when you need one unless it's the smarter person who said just moments before you started blogging, "Don't get involved" and you took it as a dare to jump in with both feet.
So, here goes.
A mother whose soldier son was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan has been quoted as saying:
"We don't want any family to experience the terrible pain of losing their son or daughter, but if Canada and NATO abandon the Afghan people, the sacrifices Lane, our family and others have made will be for nothing,'" Watkins said Monday. "They deserve your respect. In supporting them, you'll make our loss much easier to bear.''
Okay. Putting aside for the moment the all too real fact that Ms. Watkins is in a state of grief over the loss of her son, that's a fair enough thing for any supporter of the mission in Afghanistan to say. It's also something I've read many times by pundits on the Right.
It's a very clear political statement that would only be the worst kind of manipulative war propaganda if it were to turn out this is something the New Conservative Government of Canada is behind and not simply the words of a grieving mother who is being quoted by partisans on the Internet.
Still, the sad fact to many of us is that Ms. Watkins' son's death by a roadside bomb WAS in vain. All such deaths are in vain. He was killed by a roadside bomb put there by supporters of the very people from whom we are trying to save the Afghani people - which is to say, other Afghani people. To pretend that many of our soldiers' deaths aren't in vain is absolutely the wrong thing for those of us "on the homefront" (or more accurately - back home, not involved at all, making no sacrifices whatsoever whether you support the mission or not) to do, if you ask me - which, by the way - nobody did. The Liberals made the call to go to Afghanistan without my advice. Such is the nature of most calls to war these days - they are made without my advice.
But, at least, these days, no one is forced to join the army, either. That should mean a lot to all of us. We hear so often - again, "these days" - about the Great Wars and the sacrifices people made to win them, but many of those sacrifices were in vain, too. We know that now because we have hindsight. Whole battles were orgies of sacrifices in vain. I'm thinking of almost every battle in WWI and several in WWII. In fact, many of those sacrifices in vain were made with one class of people (those in charge of the war) sending out another class of people (those who were sacrificed) knowing they were being made in vain.
The mission in Afghanistan isn't a great war. It's a questionable endeavour at best. Maybe worth it, maybe not. We don't know, really, or most of us would support it. And if we decide afterall that the sacrifices in vain haven't been worth it, the real test of how much we are willing to sacrifice will come in how well we manage the decision to cut our losses and yes - abandon the mission.
In any case, the Internet debate has slipped off the rails ("Wha...?" you say) to focus on a smart and smarting Canadian Cynic who said on the Internet in answer to Ms. Watkins' quoted speech above:
"With all due respect, Wanda, fuck you and your grief. It's not the job of the rest of Canada to continue to let its soldiers die just so you can sleep better at night. At this point, I don't give a rat's ass about making you feel better for your loss now that I know that the price is other peoples' lives. Fuck you and the politically-motivated, neo-con propaganda train you rode in on."
Well, fair enough, too. Although, it's hard enough to win a debate on the Internet with your average politically-motivated, neo-con propaganda train (with the support of the government and much of the media behind them) - but to try it against a grieving mother...
Hm..
I dunno...
But (and here's where I probably should have taken the advice of the smarter person) where some fainter onlooking hearts say the harsh words are a low point, I am more inclined to say they are THE point.
One thing we all know is that it's a tragic loss of life we are witnessing. I feel as badly for Ms. Watkins as I do for all of the other grieving mothers of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan. Everyone does. That's the reason, really, why these debates on the Internet are happening and why they've become so emotionally charged.
Delicate sensibilities be damned.
