I've always wondered how I would act in a war. Would I be scared? Would I be brave? Etc.
So often we hear or see the names of those soldiers killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., and their ages, but nothing more beyond that about them as people. So please see below:
Before vote on Syria, visit Section 60 Dana Milbank POSTED: Wednesday, September 4, 2013, 1:08 AM
As President Obama weighs a strike on Syria, he will meet with military advisers, consult with allies, talk with congressional leaders, and perhaps check the opinion polls. But before he sends Americans into another war, I suggest one more activity: Return to Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery. This is where those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan lie at Arlington. These fallen warriors have filled 25 rows since the first arrived in early 2002. Obama stopped at Section 60 on Memorial Day after visiting the Tomb of the Unknowns. I visited later in the day, as I had before. There is no better way to picture the consequences of our wars. I went back to Section 60 this week and surveyed the temporary grave markers and the fresh stones that have appeared since about the time the president visited. Here are a few of the heroes he would encounter now: Twenty-six-year-old Corey Edwin Garver died June 23 in Afghanistan's Paktia province, on the Pakistan border. The Maine native, an Army infantry sergeant, was killed by an improvised explosive device. Warrant Officer Sean W. Mullen, a 39-year-old special-forces soldier, was killed by an IED in an insurgent attack June 2 in Helmand province, Afghanistan. His posthumous Bronze Star was his third. His death notice says he liked reading, hunting, collecting antique guns, renovating old Jeeps, and, with his wife, rescuing stray dogs. James Groves III, buried May 1, probably would have had a temporary grave marker when Obama last visited. According to the Dayton Daily News, Groves ran in the Marine Corps Marathon in October and, while in town, toured Arlington and told his wife he wanted to be buried there if he died in combat. He was killed when the helicopter he was piloting crashed near Kandahar. The chief warrant officer left a wife and two sons. Another headstone to rise since Obama's visit is that of Staff Sgt. Eric D. Christian of Marines special forces. The 39-year-old from Warwick, N.Y., and a colleague were killed by one of the Afghan National Army soldiers they were training. There are fresh stones, too, for the Army sergeant who died in Bagram in June in a noncombat incident, the ordnance disposal technician who survived a horrific explosion in Iraq only to die in a car crash at home, and the soldier who earned a Purple Heart in Afghanistan and apparently took his own life at home. These new arrivals join Lt. Col. John Darin Loftis, the father of two daughters who was killed in an attack on the Afghan interior ministry and buried at the end of March. A few open graves in Section 60 were covered with plywood and artificial turf, awaiting occupants. As I walked among the recent graves, a group of Marines, in blue and gold T-shirts, arrived to pay respects to fallen comrades. A cemetery worker was tamping the earth. There were flower arrangements at every 10th grave or so. Helium balloons decorated the grave of a soldier who would have turned 24 last week. Scattered about were other mementos: a framed Bronze Star citation, a chip from Spanky's Lounge in Jacksonville, Fla., and a handwritten card to a young man who died last year: "I miss you more than you can imagine, my son." As I prepared to leave, I heard a rifle volley and Taps from a distant burial. Now, as Obama prepares for a possible military action in Syria, he's facing a choice of a minimal strike that will achieve little, or greater involvement that would be costlier and still may not work. He's sure to be criticized either way, but that doesn't matter. What matters is whether the prospects for success in Syria justify filling more rows of Section 60.
Follow Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20130904_Before_vote_on_Syria__visit_Section_60.html#pVXdFdyA4QDDdDtk.99
A church is seen in Kainyabiri village on the banks of the River Nun in Nigeria's oil state of Bayelsa November 27, 2012. — Reuters pic
No one claimed responsibility but Islamist militant group Boko Haram, a sect, which has condemned the use of Western medicine, has been blamed for carrying out a spate of assaults on security forces in the city in recent weeks.
Some influential Muslim leaders in Kano openly oppose polio vaccination, saying it is a conspiracy against Muslim children.
The attacks will hit efforts by global health organisations to clear Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north of polio; a virus that can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection.
It is the second time this year that polio workers have come under attack by Islamist militants after gunmen killed aid workers tackling the disease in Pakistan last month.
“Gunmen on bikes opened fire on a health centre in the Hotoro district killing seven, while an attack on Zaria Road area of the city claimed two lives,” said police spokesman Magaji Musa.
“They were working for the state government giving out polio vaccinations at the time of the attack,” Musa added.
Kano government banned motorbikes from carrying passengers last month after the Emir of Kano, one of the country’s most prominent leaders, was nearly killed when gunmen attacked his convoy, killing four of his aides.
Kano residents said soldiers had cordoned off the areas attacked and movement was being restricted in the city.
ISLAMIST THREAT
Boko Haram killed hundreds last year as part of its campaign to impose Islamic law, or sharia, on a country of 160 million split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.
The group is seen as the most serious threat to the stability of Africa’s top energy producer, and Western governments fear the country could become a base for operations of al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups in the Sahara.
President Goodluck Jonathan has highlighted links between Boko Haram and Saharan Islamists and said that relationship justified his decision to join efforts by French and West African forces to fight militants in Mali last month.
In 2003, northern Nigeria’s Muslim leaders opposed polio vaccinations, saying they could cause infertility and AIDS.
Their campaign against the treatments was blamed for a resurgence of the disease in parts of Nigeria and other African countries previously declared polio-free.
Polio, a virus that attacks the nervous system, crippled thousands of people every year in rich nations until the 1950s. As a result of vaccination, it is now only endemic in three countries — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, there were 121 new cases of polio in Nigeria last year, compared to 58 in Pakistan and 37 in Afghanistan.
“This is certainly a set back for polio eradication in Nigeria, but not a stop,” said Oyewale Tomori, a campaigner for polio eradication in Nigeria.
“The best we can do is to work harder and see the end of polio ... so their loss will not end as a useless sacrifice.”
At least 16 health workers taking part in polio vaccination drives were killed in attacks in Pakistan in December and January.
Local Taliban militants said they did not carry out those attacks although its leaders have repeatedly denounced the vaccination programme as a plot to sterilise people or spy on Muslims. — Reuters
