Living Fathers Contribute More Than Dead Soldiers

From The Tacoma News Tribune story 2 JBLM soldiers killed in Afghanistan:

"They were sons, husbands, fathers and Soldiers who contributed immeasurably to their families, communities, our unit and the nation. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families."

This sort of trite genuflection to families enrages me. Widows and orphans don't need thoughts and prayers. They need husbands and fathers. The United States has created more widows and orphans through military adventurism over the last decade than terrorists did in all acts against the US up through 9/11. In Iraq and Afghanistan there have been 5,073 killed in action since 2003. Another 1,380 have been killed on duty in these theaters. A total of 6,453 soldiers - sons, fathers, husbands - killed for what increasing looks like pointless aggression (source: DOD Casualty Status Report). They leave behind 3,549 widows/widowers and 4,646 orphans. (source: TAPS Fact Sheet)


Now as two soldiers from our local base have been killed, we are reminded of how they "contributed immeasurably" to their families, communities, their unit and the nation. I daresay a better contribution to their families would be to continuing living as sons, husbands and fathers. 

“Mike was a soldier through and through and you just couldn’t ask for a guy that’s more loyal to our country and to my daughter, and then to my granddaughter,”

The 9 month old girl who will grow up never knowing her father would be better served by having her father nearby than she was served by his death 7,000 miles away. When she speaks her first word, has her first day of school, loses her first tooth, encounters her first bully or boyfriend, what contribution will her father have to offer her from the grave? When she feels alone, questions her identity or aches for belonging, what contribution will her father be able to make? Thoughts and prayers are little consolation at that point. That he died in service to his country will not comfort that little girl in those times.


Let me be clear. I mean no disrespect to the men and women who seek to serve our nation through the military. To the contrary, I greatly respect them. I value their lives and their service. I can't help but think of them as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers with families who will be without them. And with plans for keeping a military presence in Afghanistan for at least another 10 years and military contractors in Iraq indefinitely, we will continue to see contributions to families cut short in the service of military goals that contribute very little, if anything, to our nation.