Musings of a pacifist

I came across a quote today. It was disturbing to the greatest degree. And being as how this week is the 5-year anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq, I thought this to be a pertinent time to share this. The quote is from former first lady Barbara Bush, on Good Morning America just after the Iraq war started in 2003.

"Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths?...I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
~Barbara Bush

I will tell you, Mrs. Bush, why you should 'waste' your mind on something like that. Because inside of every body bag is a life cut short. Every statistic on CNN is someone's son. Every million dollars buys a group of innocent Iraqis laid to rest. Barbara, I challenge you to make such an ignorant statement when your grand-daughters stop being drunk and enlist for the military. When one of them comes home covered in a flag, will you be so calloused? How can you tell me that the life of a person is not relevant? If I had the means, I would camp out across the street from your house and set up a giant screen and show 24/7 footage of the carnage that your son has recklessly caused.

Even more disturbing to me is this, excerpted from a CNN article published on the day of the 5-year anniversary. This one comes from good ol' GW himself.

"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq"
-George W. Bush

Mr. President, how do you sleep at night? You entered an unjust war on false pretenses, which have cost thousands of lives (I refuse to break down deaths into categories such as 'american lives' or 'american troops'...Iraqis are people just the same as Americans are. And the Iraqi people have paid dearly for the smokescreen politics of GW, just the same as the American people have). These costs are NECESSARY? Ridiculous. The blood of the innocents is on your hands, Mr. Bush.

I could argue until the cows come home (which would be quite a long time, seeing as how I don't own any) about how ridiculous this war is. But I won't do that. All I will say is that my heart is bleeding for the world. For the 98 percent of Iraqis and Afghans who never hurt anyone, for the people of Darfur, for the child-soldiers of Uganda.... the list could go on. Sometimes it all just makes me want to cry.