BATTLE OF WANAT

The "power of grief" is probably our most potent emotion. I was reminded of that, which I already knew, recently through an article in Vanity Fair about a young Lt killed in an isolated outpost in Afghanistan and a father's grief which almost succeeded in tarnishing everybody that a sorry war touched. The story is too involved to recount and establishing blame is such a subjective thing. The only other grief so palpable that I've seen of late, related to the same sorry war is Pat Tillman. In both cases, the grief drives everything. The sad thing and bottom line to use that overworked term, is that grief is simply

I recently read a long article from Vanity Fair. Took me three days to read it as it was so dense with facts and description. Great writing. It demostrated again the "power of grief" which is probably our most potent emotion.The article was about a young Lieutenant killed in an isolated outpost in Afghanistan and a father's grief which almost succeeded in tarnishing everybody that a sorry war touched. The story is too involved to recount and establishing blame is such a subjective thing. The only other grief so palpable that I've read about of late, related to the same sorry war, is Pat Tillman's family. This putcome is much better than the Tillman one. (To me, the Tillman family never really got their due as it somewhat ended in a congressional embarrassment with them bowing and scraping to the generals and a few others, even Rumsfeld if I remember correctly). The "power of grief" is probably our most potent emotion. I was reminded of that, which I already knew, recently through an article in Vanity Fair about a young Lt killed in an isolated outpost in Afghanistan and a father's grief which almost succeeded in tarnishing everybody that a sorry war touched. The story is too involved to recount and establishing blame is such a subjective thing. The only other grief so palpable that I've seen of late, related to the same sorry war is Pat Tillman. In both cases, the grief drives everything. The sad thing and bottom line to use that overworked term, is that grief is simply

I recently read a long article from Vanity Fair. Took me three days to read it as it was so dense with facts and description. Great writing. It demostrated again the "power of grief" which is probably our most potent emotion.The article was about a young Lieutenant killed in an isolated outpost in Afghanistan and a father's grief which almost succeeded in tarnishing everybody that a sorry war touched. The story is too involved to recount and establishing blame is such a subjective thing. The only other grief so palpable that I've read about of late, related to the same sorry war, is Pat Tillman's family. This putcome is much better than the Tillman one. (To me, the Tillman family never really got their due as it somewhat ended in a congressional embarrassment with them bowing and scraping to the generals and a few others, even Rumsfeld if I remember correctly).
In both cases, the grief drives everything. The sad thing and bottom line, to use that overworked term, is that sometimes grief is simply a debilitating emotion that turns into anger. Very sad unless it helps the grieving along their path of recovery or something related. Doubt there is ever complete healing. And, the article is another example of what a fast train to nowhere is Afghanistan. (just today, over 50 killed by suicide bombers) A mess.

The battle of Wanat (subject of article) was a disaster and the blame has to go to the generals who sit back and make these inane strategy decisions like young LTs who hardly know what end is up sitting down with what we would call "village chiefs" and who are probably involved with the enemy anyway. It is idiocy at the highest levels. Hurts my heart. The command structure above expected way too much, gave them inadequate support, and simply ignored some of the basic survival rules of war.

In the final analysis, after the battalion commander, company commander were reprimanded, signed off on by guys like Praetreus, the special investigator, in the face of enormous opposition, reversed the findings with a partial analysis which I totally agree with: in combat anything can happen and Monday morning quarterbacking can never measure up to what a firefight truly means. I had read about it before but not with this depth.



In both cases, the grief drives everything. The sad thing and bottom line, to use that overworked term, is that sometimes grief is simply a debilitating emotion that turns intoY anger. Very sad unless it helps the grieving along their path of recovery or something related. Doubt there is ever complete healing. And, the article is another example of what a fast train to nowhere is Afghanistan. (just today, over 50 killed by suicide bombers) A mess.

The battle of Wanat (subject of article) was a disaster and the blame has to go to the generals who sit back and make these inane strategy decisions like young LTs who hardly know what end is up sitting down with what we would call "village chiefs" and who are probably involved with the enemy anyway. It is idiocy at the highest levels. Hurts my heart. The command structure above expected way too much, gave them inadequate support, and simply ignored some of the basic survival rules of war.

In the final analysis, after the battalion commander, company commander were reprimanded, signed off on by guys like Praetreus, the special investigator, in the face of enormous opposition, reversed the findings with a partial analysis which I totally agree with: in combat anything can happen and Monday morning quarterbacking can never measure up to what a firefight truly means. I had read about it before but not with this depth.