This is truly sad

In loving memory
Lance Corporal ***** *********
1982-2004
Died In Fallujah Iraq

I have seen these before, but for some reason, seeing one yesterday really affected me badly, I was almost in tears.

But the reason really isn't the tragedy of a young man's death, I was an infantryman myself, and there are risks to that business that you take on when you sign on. I was lucky enough not to have had to pay the butcher's bill myself, but there are holes in my life where someone paid the bill for me.

The reason that I was truly saddened is that this was posted as a bumper sticker on an SUV. That in itself is too laden with irony to be bearable, but the real issue was that it was starting to get seriously faded and the SUV had a for-sale sign on it.

Fighting a war is usually avoidable, and this one was probably more avoidable than most. But the tragedy will always be the losses that will fade from our memory over time. Losses that didn't have to be made for purposes that were based on flawed logic and to profit the few at the expense of the many.