A Thousand Fathers (Assignment)

"Those soldiers out there are just boys. Boys who are trained to do a terrible unthinkable thing. If that ever occurs, the only reassurance they'll have that they're doing the proper thing, is gonna derive from their unqualified belief in the unified chain of command."

- Captain Jack Ramsey, Crimson Tide, 1995


Since March 20, 2003, 4,079 spirits have been commended to the heavens.

4,079 sacrifices...

4,079 families forever transformed...

Even those who decried the U.S. invasion of Iraq from its outset couldn't have envisioned a human toll this costly.

Or perhaps those of us who were sold on President Bush's false bill-of-goods were simply too blind, too ignorant, and too trusting to doubt the assertions of an institution, a government, that had long proven itself to be anything but above reproach.

Prior to the launch of the Persian Gulf War, the U.S. successfully persuaded Saudi Arabia's King Fahd to grant permission for American troops to be deployed on his country's soil, by using intelligence that was later proven to be faulty, concerning a build-up of Iraqi troops along the Saudi border.

Beginning on January 17, 1991, the awesome might of the newly computerized American war-machine was fully demonstrated to the public, as the U.S. drove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's antiquated military forces out of Kuwait, and shortly thereafter had them completely rolled up 100 hours after the first coalition tank crossed into Iraq.

Featured prominently during the live news report from Baghdad that aired the night Operation Desert Storm commenced, was the actual video of the punishing air strikes.

The gun-camera footage of the surgical air strikes, combined with the blinding speed at which the American-led coalition raced across the desert, created an air of invincibility around the U.S. military.

Despite the overwhelming success of the campaign, Saddam Hussein was never removed from power, and his regime would endure for the next 12 years.

Responding to the criticisms leveled against President George H.W. Bush for electing to not depose Hussein, then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said,

"I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home. And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that without significant additional U.S. casualties, and while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the (1991) conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And the question in my mind is, how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is, not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the President made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."

In the years that followed, Americans witnessed the unveiling of several different types of technologically advanced military aircraft; including, the B-2 stealth bomber and the "Predator" drone.

That the U.S. succeeded where the Soviet Union once failed in its invasion of Afghanistan after September 11th, enhanced its credibility as a military power, further bolstering people's confidence in it.

So, taking these factors into consideration, for certain members of the Bush administration to have made bold claims about the ultimate outcome of the war in Iraq, such as the invading army being hailed as liberators and showered with rose petals, didn't seem terribly preposterous at the time.

Yet, the fanciful visages they gave weren't quite convincing enough in order for the American people to endorse a full scale invasion of the country (not that the president really needed them to).

President George W. Bush, along with other high-ranking members of his cabinet, made a case for war (which has since been proven to be false) that was based primarily on intelligence indicating that Iraq had resumed developing weapons of mass destruction.

If that wasn't enough to sway public opinion, the much-hyped military doctrine known as "Shock & Awe" would make for a more compelling argument.

Once the fighting ensued, as a means of advancing their political agenda, The Pentagon authorized the embedding of journalists with various military units on the battlefield, providing the American people back home a "bird's eye view" of the war; an event that was totally unprecedented in history.