Wasted

NASHUA, New Hampshire (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is apologizing for saying the lives of the more than 3,000 U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war were "wasted."

During his first campaign trip this weekend, the Illinois senator told a crowd in Iowa: "We now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."

It's borderline tragic that he had to apologize for that, because I think he was exactly right.

I understand why some people would be offended by it, so I understand why he said he was sorry. Everyone who's lost someone in Iraq wants to believe their loved-one died for some great cause, in some valiant sacrifice -- that their death was anything but a waste.

Tell a father his daughter died for no reason, and what does he have left? How can parents and children and husbands and wives continue on without the idea that their loved-one died saving the world? I don't know. But I think it's a dangerous viewpoint, all the same, because it's a viewpoint that needs fuel.

If you don't believe these valuable young lives are being wasted, then how do you ever draw the line? If Iraq is important enough for our best and bravest to be there, and to be dying there, then how can we say it's not even more noble for more of them to be there, and to die there? And more and more -- until we have another Vietnam Wall's worth of names?

It's as though in the name of "supporting the troops" we stubbornly refuse to admit we sent people to die for a mistake. But the tragic consequence of that is that more people will die, just to fuel the delusion. Supporting them doesn't mean sending them to die for no reason. What did John Kerry say during the Vietnam War? "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Today we should be asking ourselves how many more need to die before it proves all the rest weren't a waste.

We don't have to justify the reason for soldiers' deaths in order to honor their lives. And we don't have to justify the war they were sent to in order to praise the courage they had for going. And I wish everyone who lost someone in Iraq could know that calling their loved-one's death a waste absolutely doesn't mean their life was. It's a waste because there's no reason 3,000+ Americans shouldn't be around to have kids, or write books, or call their grandparents to say hello.

So Barack was right. And if he made people angry, they should be angry. Angry enough to keep us from sending any more soldiers to be wasted.