DAYS

SICK AND TIRED
An e-mail was sent out to our office last week informing us that our receptionist, the one who has greeted me every day for the past eight months with a smile, was no longer with the company. The reason? She's been called up and will probably be heading to Iraq soon, leaving a 3-year-old son to wait for her return. I have a friend from childhood who's just completed his flight school training with the Marine Corps. He too will soon be leaving for Iraq. His wife and two kids will wait for him.



I am extremely proud of the men and women who serve in the armed forces. I realize that the sacrifices they make are greater than most of us can even imagine. I'm proud of their families for supporting them, and I'm forever grateful for the job they do. But I am so sick and tired of this war -- this stupid, senseless war -- plucking people out of the population and plopping them into the desert to protect a 'palace' the size of 80 football fields for George W. Bush.

'It's my palace and I'm keeping it. So there.'

I'm sick and tired of hearing about 52-year-old grandmothers being sent to guard Dick Cheney's oilfields.

I'm sick and tired of hearing stories about 23-year-old men, still heartbroken over the battlefield death of his 21-year-old fiancee, meeting the same fate three years later.

I'm sick and tired of outrageous recruiting stories such as this one in which an autisitic teenager in Portland is openly recruited, signed and sent to Iraq.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about small towns across America suffering through multiple funerals for their young men and women slain in Iraq.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about families left behind to mourn and grieve.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about helicopters being shot down (5 dead) or crashing (10 dead).

I'm sick and tired of hearing about roadside bombs killing our soldiers every single day.

I'm sick and tired of reading headlines like this every single day: 42 Killed, Found Dead in Iraq Violence.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about 'turning points'.

I'm sick and tired of seeing this asshole's face every day.

What's that you said, 'bring 'em on'?

And I'm already sick and tired of the next war. I agree whole-heartedly with Juan Cole: We're not going to let you, the radical, misguided, hawkish idealogues of the PNAC Party, have your wider war. No more senseless deaths. No more imperialistic adventures. No more.