A son’s pride and a nation’s loss.
By on Apr 30th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
A son’s pride and a nation’s loss.
ABC’s World News Tonight highlights an eight-year-old whose father died in Iraq.
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Just ten years before the lad can follow in daddy’s footsteps.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:28 pmGOD DAMN THIS CRIMINAL BUSH ADMINISTRATION
April 30th, 2007 at 11:35 pmAbsolutely dreadful
April 30th, 2007 at 11:44 pmABC is trying to embolden the enemy.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:47 pmIm guessing Laura Bush has a bigger pain…
April 30th, 2007 at 11:49 pmWhen is this going to quit? We are basically just sending our guys to Iraq to be ambushed and quieted. We are at wits end. We need to quit. We need to pull our troops and defend what soil we have left. Let’s start defending our country …by defending what we have here, what is left, what shall be.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:50 pmIm guessing Laura Bush has a bigger pain…
Comment by Juan C — April 30, 2007 @ 11:49 pm
Poor Laura, she suffers so. Maybe we should send her something. How about packing!
April 30th, 2007 at 11:54 pmSo?! Lots of children have family who have died in Iraq. What’s the big deal?
I mean.. it sucks… but why does THIS kid get an ABC special report? What about the rest of em? They’re not important enough?
I friggin hate specials like this. Why single anyone out? It’s BS.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:59 pmPoor Laura, she suffers so. Maybe we should send her something. How about packing!
Comment by Shane
**snort**
May 1st, 2007 at 12:02 amSeriously guys & gals, let’s just stop what we’re doing and head to Washington and protest. Enough is enough. Let’s turn off our computers and go.
Now is the time to do it.
We’re all Americans and our government doesn’t represent us. That means we have the right to overthrow it.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:05 amNo, he is not the man of the family. He is an eight year old boy and fuck the sons of bitches who use little boys to support their heinous occupation of Iraq. This occupation benefits no one, no ones freedoms are protected by it, no one is safer for it and that little boy is no way better off because of it. Patriotic bullshit.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:19 amJust like 9/11, war is a service rendered by Bush & Co. for the global elite and the “HAVE MORES”. Bush and Cheney cash in …and the American people pay with lives, taxes, and loss of freedom
May 1st, 2007 at 12:28 am#8 Why not them?
May 1st, 2007 at 12:35 amThis is getting more involved by the day since the military contractors are taking at least 40% of the budget without zero oversight. The following piece from TomDispatch, via Scheer’s TruthOut, is pretty important and I hope TP will start picking up what is going down with these military contractors, the new mercenary force.
Democrats’ ‘Sellout’ on Bush’s Mercenaries
May 1st, 2007 at 12:55 amerrata — with zero oversight, not without
May 1st, 2007 at 12:58 amMeanwhile, back at the “surge:”
U.S. death toll passes 100 for April
May 1st, 2007 at 1:07 amOn some teevee channel, one day I hope news readers will spend an entire week reading the names of our fallen servicemen and servicewomen and describing the heartache of their loved ones. And then spend a couple of months doing the same for the innocent Iraqis who are merely “collateral damage.”
For those who are truly compassion, it will hurt unbearably. For those who are callous and unconcerned, it will form the basis of their indictment for war crimes.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:16 amAnd if this illegal war had actually ended on Mission Accomplished Day back on May 1, 2003 (FOUR F*CKING YEARS AGO), this kid would be riding his BMX bike today and his dad would be the man of the family, cooking steaks in the backyard. But noooooo. Now this young boy has other duties.
Heckuva job robbing robbing the youth from our young, Bush. Heckuva job.
Theresa
May 1st, 2007 at 1:31 am**snort**
Comment by Zooey — May 1, 2007 @ 12:02 am
See me, I’m cute, I can **snort** like a pig.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:32 amCorrection to #17. That should read:
Heckuva job robbing the youth from our young, Bush. Heckuva job.
Theresa
May 1st, 2007 at 1:38 amComment by Theresa
The first one makes sense too:
“Heckuva job robbing, ROBBING the youth from our young, Bush.”.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:05 amBush does not care about soldiers dying as long as he and Cheney control Iraq’s OIL.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:28 amI think this video highlights how dreadful this war is on all the dead – who have families of their own. Hundreds of Iraqis die every day, and in addition to America’s war dead, we have over 24,000 wounded. So many lives ruined.
What struck me at the end of this video was, however, it’s sexist turn, suggesting that a small boy now becomes the man of the family. What exactly does that mean? I don’t mean to detract from the meaning of the piece, I just noticed that point and thought it might contribute to the discussion here.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:08 am#10 – Amen!
May 1st, 2007 at 3:25 amFox news thinks eight year olds should be in charge of families. “Man of the House.” Spread the word.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:36 amThat is bad taste propaganda, now do the same exercise to 650,000 Iraqi families or 4.5% of the population , and you just might be able to understand what a sorry position for the Iraqi women and children who have suffered
suffering is universal NOT just American
May 1st, 2007 at 6:56 amAll fine and well except for the patriotic bullsh*t about having to die so his family won’t have to.
He didn’t die to keep his family “free”. He died because a pack of lies sent him over there to grab the oil. Period. There was no honor in his death because there is no honor in this illegal invasion.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:57 amShallow, exploitative, manipulative – typical media tripe.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:25 amIf you can take the inevitable tears that will follow, check this link:
http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1
May 1st, 2007 at 9:42 amThat’s sad.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:45 amNO eight year old boy should have to bury their father (American, Iraqi, or otherwise).
May 1st, 2007 at 9:52 amAs the clip said, our soldiers fight so that we don’t have to.
Too bad, though, that so many citizens were unwilling to do what the soldier cannot: question the actions being taken in their names.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:06 pmIf they’d lived up to that one meager duty, that poor eight-year-old would still have a dad.
When I was 5, may dad went to Vietnam for about 2 years. I am sad that I missed those 2 years with him. But, I was lucky. My dad came back from Vietnam and finished out 28 years of service in the Air Force. He just died a couple of weeks ago at age 75. At his funeral, there was an honor guard and a 21 gun salute. I was very sad, of course. But much more than sad, I was proud. It was the first time I saw my brothers cry and I cried, too. War is terrible. Death is terrible. Losing a father at the age of 8 is unthinkable. But there are things much worse than dying. Our freedoms don’t just happen, they were bitterly fought fore and painstakingly maintained. And it is that pain that makes it possible to exercise the inalienable rights we often take for granted.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:15 pmLet’s be clear: the words in the piece about “fighting so our families don’t have to” is from the father in his last letter to his family before he was killed, not ABC or Charles Gibson.
Don’t begrudge the father his beliefs — that thinking is often necessary when people are trying to kill you every day in a desert country a world away from everything you love and cherish. Sometimes that is all they have just to get through the day.
I disagree with the poster above who says there is “no honor” in the father’s death; to sign your name on a contract, to volunteer because you believe it is the right thing to do based on information from people you trust, is honorable. Whether you are correct to trust in them is another issue altogether…
But to follow through on your end of the commitment — in contrast to those who put you there — is honorable. To do your job honestly, to the best of your ability, is inherently honorable. And to do that job, under the most difficult of circumstances, which are truly unimaginable to those who have not walked in our soldiers’ boots, is inherently honorable.
All of the dishonor belongs solely to Bush and Cheney and the officials and mouthpieces who perpetuated the lies that led to and keep Americans in harm’s way in this war. That is the true dishonor.
ABC News is responsible for the bullshit about the 8-yr-old being “the man of the family now”. I wonder how his mother feels about that, whether she thinks it might be a little too heavy a burden to put on those little shoulders right after his daddy’s funeral.
But at least Gibson and ABC News can walk away knowing they put a good “button” on the end of the newscast, and forget all about that little boy — er, “man of the family” — now. They’ve probably forgotten about him already.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:02 pmSomeone — Is there a nuanced difference between volunteering and being recruited?
May 1st, 2007 at 3:13 pmThey is honor in putting yourself into harms way for your brothers, ultimately that is why soldiers do the brave things that they do. These soldiers reenlist to defend thier brothers because they are great at thier job and dont want someone less trained to die in thier place.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:07 am