Democracy for Vancouver

I wanted to cross post this from Politics is a blood sport for a wider audience

As always, The News Hour ends their report with the photos and names of the recently fallen in Iraq, and for some reason, Durrell Bennett’s death has really touched a nerve personally:

SEATTLE — A local soldier who was set to come home in just days was killed in Iraq by enemy fire.On March 29, 22-year-old Pvt. 1st Class Durrell Bennett died in Baghdad, Iraq, under enemy fire and after a roadside explosion.

“He was a joy, he was a joy,” said Doris Bennett, Durrell’s mother.“He just loved people and he did as much for people as he could and he gave of himself,” said Doris. Durrell Bennett grew up in Spanaway. He was set to leave Iraq after a 15-month tour of duty on April 4.

[...]

At Bethel High School, Bennett excelled, said his parents. He was a member of choir dance step team, the debate team, and the football team. He also was homecoming king. Bennett’s family remembers the kind-hearted soul who followed his father’s footsteps into the military.

That makes this even worse, being only 4 days from leaving that miserable place. And The Seattle Times has a fuller story:

When he returned, Spc. Bennett had planned to rent an apartment, where he and brother Darnell, a senior at Bethel, could live after he graduated this year.

“He wanted to see me go to college,” Darnell Bennet said. “He was going to let me stay with him and he was going to help pay for my college. He was going to get his life set and we were going to get things started together.”

I’ve only rolled through Spanaway once, and it’s a place where people deal ammunition out of the backs of their vans. In our lame ass system of an all-volunteer armed forces (and no, I’m not demeaning the troops, but the political leadership), it’s the kids from Spanaway who bear the brunt of the fighting and the dying.

If you have a chance, do watch Frontline’s Bad Voodoo’s War report which chronicles what it’s like to be part of a convoy security detachment in Iraq. Instead of some reporter given their second hand take on events, troops are given the cameras, and you get the human side of the story. The futility of what we’re doing over there becomes all too apparent, whether it be the multiple deployments or the Iraqi Army checkpoints that plant the IEDs.

Meanwhile, in DC, well meaning people testify before Senate committees about our need for withdrawal, and that’s all to the good. But how many more fine young men have to die for Bush’s War?