This is a first for myself, printing a whole article or editorial, but the following is so powerfully written, that even though a registration is required to read it (and one can bypass registration with www.bugmenot.com) in this case it's a message that should get as much exposure as possible

A Life, Wasted

Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are Killed

By Paul E. Schroeder
Tuesday, January 3, 2006; A17

Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there. At 10:45 a.m. two Marines showed up at our door. After collecting himself for what was clearly painful duty, the lieutenant colonel said, "Your son is a true American hero."

Since then, two reactions to Augie's death have compounded the sadness.

At times like this, people say, "He died a hero." I know this is meant with great sincerity. We appreciate the many condolences we have received and how helpful they have been. But when heard repeatedly, the phrases "he died a hero" or "he died a patriot" or "he died for his country" rub raw.

"People think that if they say that, somehow it makes it okay that he died," our daughter, Amanda, has said. "He was a hero before he died, not just because he went to Iraq. I was proud of him before, and being a patriot doesn't make his death okay. I'm glad he got so much respect at his funeral, but that didn't make it okay either."

The words "hero" and "patriot" focus on the death, not the life. They are a flag-draped mask covering the truth that few want to acknowledge openly: Death in battle is tragic no matter what the reasons for the war. The tragedy is the life that was lost, not the manner of death. Families of dead soldiers on both sides of the battle line know this. Those without family in the war don't appreciate the difference.

This leads to the second reaction. Since August we have witnessed growing opposition to the Iraq war, but it is often whispered, hands covering mouths, as if it is dangerous to speak too loudly. Others discuss the never-ending cycle of death in places such as Haditha in academic and sometimes clinical fashion, as in "the increasing lethality of improvised explosive devices."

Listen to the kinds of things that most Americans don't have to experience: The day Augie's unit returned from Iraq to Camp Lejeune, we received a box with his notebooks, DVDs and clothes from his locker in Iraq. The day his unit returned home to waiting families, we received the second urn of ashes. This lad of promise, of easy charm and readiness to help, whose highest high was saving someone using CPR as a first aid squad volunteer, came home in one coffin and two urns. We buried him in three places that he loved, a fitting irony, I suppose, but just as rough each time.

I am outraged at what I see as the cause of his death. For nearly three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy that makes our troops sitting ducks. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our policy is to "clear, hold and build" Iraqi towns, there aren't enough troops to do that.

In our last conversation, Augie complained that the cost in lives to clear insurgents was "less and less worth it," because Marines have to keep coming back to clear the same places. Marine commanders in the field say the same thing. Without sufficient troops, they can't hold the towns. Augie was killed on his fifth mission to clear Haditha.

At Augie's grave, the lieutenant colonel knelt in front of my wife and, with tears in his eyes, handed her the folded flag. He said the only thing he could say openly: "Your son was a true American hero." Perhaps. But I felt no glory, no honor. Doing your duty when you don't know whether you will see the end of the day is certainly heroic. But even more, being a hero comes from respecting your parents and all others, from helping your neighbors and strangers, from loving your spouse, your children, your neighbors and your enemies, from honesty and integrity, from knowing when to fight and when to walk away, and from understanding and respecting the differences among the people of the world.

Two painful questions remain for all of us. Are the lives of Americans being killed in Iraq wasted? Are they dying in vain? President Bush says those who criticize staying the course are not honoring the dead. That is twisted logic: honor the fallen by killing another 2,000 troops in a broken policy?

I choose to honor our fallen hero by remembering who he was in life, not how he died. A picture of a smiling Augie in Iraq, sunglasses turned upside down, shows his essence -- a joyous kid who could use any prop to make others feel the same way.

Though it hurts, I believe that his death -- and that of the other Americans who have died in Iraq -- was a waste. They were wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator -- a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires. They were wasted by not sending enough troops to do the job needed in the resulting occupation -- a careless disregard for professional military counsel.

But their deaths will not be in vain if Americans stop hiding behind flag-draped hero masks and stop whispering their opposition to this war. Until then, the lives of other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers may be wasted as well.

This is very painful to acknowledge, and I have to live with it. So does President Bush.

The writer is managing director of a trade development firm in Cleveland.

I dare any right-wing, whacked-out jerkoff, misery-loving W lackey to attack Paul Schroeder, then again, as we saw with Cindy Sheehan-the depths of some peoples' willful ignorance and deliberate blindness to the glaring hypocrisies endemic to both President Jr AND the stated VS. the real outcomes & goals in Iraq-a diminishing number of people have no problem wallowing in W's filth, criticizing any & all others for the muck the W lackeys enjoy burying themselves under

It's obvious that President Jr's clear cowardice in avoiding Vietnam combat has led him to completely ignore the lives of those under the helmet & behind the trigger, and other than Pat Tillman and Casey Sheehan, I would dare W, Cheneyburton or almost anyone else in his "Screw America" cabinet to name a single US Soldier or Marine killed or wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan

The deaths, maimings & mental traumas inflicted on the US troops are all in a day's work for W, and he doesn't spend any time worrying about the effects of his disastrous decisions that have now stretched the US military to the breaking point

It's so easy to say "Bring It On" when not only thousands of miles from those challenged to do so, but also surrounded by a cordon of Secret Service Agents willing to give their lives at a moment's notice. Bravado is so much easier when the object of your ire and boasts can't fight back directly

Perhaps W can best honor those killed by finally coughing up all desperately needed body & vehicle armor, by not cutting back Veterans benefits, and by actually attending the funerals of those killed in service to this lying, worthless President and his war, a failed attempt to purge his memory of the time he so shamefully chickened out when his country needed him most, a memory that still gnaws & eats at his cancer-ridden soul and a memory that he believes can be purged by dressing up and callling himself a "War President" every chance he gets

When you're willing to walk around outside the Green Zone in Iraq-even with Secret Service Agents, then maybe we'll say your stunt paid off and proved all us anti-war critics wrong

But until then....

Fuck You W, and your inner circle too