'Incident' in Iraq Points to War's Futility - Must Read

• 'Incident' in Iraq points to war's futility
• Philip Chard, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Posted 2005-04-22 08:19:00.0
• http://tinyurl.com/bstsx
  
• Imagine you're a child, maybe 8 years young, riding in the back of the family car, your parents up front, your siblings pressed around you. It is dusk and you are making for home.
  Suddenly you hear the all-too-familiar pop of gunfire. Your father slows down but keeps driving, afraid to stop.
  Perhaps you turn to a sibling and ask what is wrong. But before anyone can answer, the war invades the thin cocoon of the automobile.
  Bullets pierce the windows and doors. Instinctively, you duck as splinters of glass and metal shower the interior.
  And with it comes the blood, splattering everywhere - on your clothes, your hands, your face - everywhere.
  For a brief, stunned moment, the carnage ceases and there is only silence. Then screaming fills your ears.
  Light streams in as you and the other children, sobbing, tumble out of the vehicle, now resting against the curb. Inside, your parents lay dead, riddled with bullets, your father's face unrecognizable.
  The soldiers gather, piecing together the tragedy they have unwittingly perpetrated. One holds and consoles you, perhaps thinking of his own children.
  He talks, but even if he spoke your language, there would be nothing he could say that would make any sense.
  All victimsIt is Jan. 18 in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar. The soldiers are an infantry platoon from the Army's 25th Division and they have just created what the Pentagon will later call an "unfortunate incident."
  Call it what you will, there are only victims on this dusty street. Not just the corpses in the car and the bloodied, terrified children, but the soldiers as well.
  All the talk about the war's purpose and righteousness has no power to change this carnage. The political sound bites and slogans are gone, leaving only the senseless terror carved permanently into their souls.
  The "incident at Tal Afar" became ammunition for the political cannonades between hawks and doves, between pro- and anti-Bush pundits. It blipped across the news media, capturing its brief moment of infamy, providing spittle for political blabbermouths.
  But the talking heads, spewing their bellicose nattering, didn't have the slightest inkling what those kids and soldiers went through that sad, crazy evening.
  Permanent scarsThey fail to grasp that something precious and vital in the souls of these victims, children and soldiers alike, has been disfigured forever. In their callous arrogance, they believe their neat little word packages and rationalizations can make sense out of madness and mayhem.
  But if every decent, caring person in this crazy world could have stood there that night holding one of those little ones, then maybe we would all realize what Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Dr. King and countless others have tried to tell us.
  War is not any kind of answer for what ails us.
• Philip Chard is a psychotherapist, author and trainer. Names used in this column are changed to honor client confidentiality. Call (262) 547-3986, e-mail pschard@earthlink.net, or visit www.healingnature.com.