Tuesday, April 01, 2003

All this talk about pow's being televised, and war crimes, and who's done what to whom, I've been reminded how I felt the first time I saw the five pow's.

My initial thought was 'thank God we can see who they are. We can see what has happened to them, we can see they're alive. And thank God the country now knows they are pow's, and the Whitehouse KNOWS we know.'

If it were me (and I can't even imagine), I'd want my face plastered all over the place. I'd remember that we, as a country, don't usually forget about and leave the ones we see on TV.

I'd be relieved that my government wouldn't be able to forget about me and sweep my name under the rug the way they forgot about Lieutenant Commander Michael Speicher.

My country wouldn't be able to move on without me. The government who sent me here wouldn't be able to leave me to rot in this God forsaken country. My country wouldn't let them.

We don't have a very good track record when it comes to our POW's and MIA's. Being shown on television, the very thing the Whitehouse is decrying as a war crime, will most likely be the thing that saves their lives. If indeed their lives are saved.

Maybe if LCDR Speicher had been shown on TV, his government wouldn't have forsaken him.

I want the Whitehouse to stop whining and do something about it. The more they can keep the focus of the subject on how unfair it was for them to show the pow's and how many rules they've broken, the less anyone is asking what they're going to do about it.

When all the sand has settled and this mess is finally over, we won't forget the faces we've seen. And we won't let Mr. Bush forget, as his father did.

Kansas @ 3:20 PM