by Ted Sherman

Created on: January 15, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Most briefly put: surge = dirge. Sending a surge of 20,000 more troops to fight in a war without end will result only in more sad dirge music at military funerals in America. Our forces are the best in the world, both in quality and bravery, but they nor any other outside force can win a war that has been going on for centuries, and will continue endlessly whether US troops are there or not. Religious fanaticism has been an ingrained part of Middle East life and death for at least the past thousand years. It will end, if indeed it ever will, only when religious leaders in those areas turn their preachings away from hate and murder. Among his many faults, President Bush failed to realize the hopelessness of starting a conventional military campaign in those countries. Over the past two centuries, England, France, Italy and other Europeans tried similar actions, and eventually had to retreat back to their own borders. As long as President Bush refuses to learn by the history of the region, and the fact that the US has not won a war since World War II, we will continue to sacrifice the precious lives of our young men and women in this hopeless war. Incidentally, I am not a sign-carrying pacifist. I served in both World War II and Korea, and long ago realized that while the first was a just war, while the other was as hopeless as the current one.

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