1,000 US Military Deaths in Afghanistan

Originally posted February 18, 2010

So, in my spare time, I work at the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago. As an apprentice there, I am learning all kinds of cool stuff about the peace movement and non-profit orgs, etc. The AFSC is a Quaker anti-war group that has been around for almost 100 years and has strong international presence.

Anyway, I wrote a Letter to the Editor today, and I figured I would just throw it up here as a reflection on my non-feminist activism:

It has come to my attention that we are nearing the 1,000th U.S. military death in the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.

As I reflect on this milestone, I must wonder many things: Why are we still there? Why are so many dead, including so many civilians? Why have Americans stopped caring?\

Although I do not have the answers to these questions, I must assume some responsibility, along with the general public, for not doing more.

It has become obvious that, despite losing so many of our friends and family to this almost-decade-long war, Americans have become bored and uninterested with this conflict. Despite the bodies returning home and the suffering and deaths of so many innocent Afghan civilians, there is no huge, nation-wide, peace movement.

Where is our cross-country march? Where are those Obama-voters who were promised so much more? Where are those embarassed to continue calling themselves "American" after we've been sold out by our own government once again?

As we approach this tragic milestone of the Afghan war, I think it is important for all Americans to reflect on this conflict and consequential death toll; to reflect on what we each have done to support or oppose this war; to reflect on how we can live with ourselves, knowing that we have, in some way, contributed to the deaths of 1,000 of our fellow Americans, as well as an uncountable amount of innocent Afghan citizens.