Major Andrew Olmsted, KIA: RIP

Andrew Olmsted, who also posted at Obsidian Wings as G'Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. He left a posthumous entry to be published in case he was despatched to a place where he would no longer be able to, and this is an excerpt:

I do ask (not that I'm in a position to enforce this) that no one try to use my death to further their political purposes. I went to Iraq and did what I did for my reasons, not yours. My life isn't a chit to be used to bludgeon people to silence on either side. If you think the U.S. should stay in Iraq, don't drag me into it by claiming that somehow my death demands us staying in Iraq. If you think the U.S. ought to get out tomorrow, don't cite my name as an example of someone's life who was wasted by our mission in Iraq. I have my own opinions about what we should do about Iraq, but since I'm not around to expound on them I'd prefer others not try and use me as some kind of moral capital to support a position I probably didn't support. Further, this is tough enough on my family without their having to see my picture being used in some rally or my name being cited for some political purpose. You can fight political battles without hurting my family, and I'd prefer that you did so. On a similar note, while you're free to think whatever you like about my life and death, if you think I wasted my life, I'll tell you you're wrong. We're all going to die of something. I died doing a job I loved. When your time comes, I hope you are as fortunate as I was. [From Andy Olmsted]

I was always struck by the certainty of tone in his writing: he believed what he was doing was right, and it was clear he was doing it for more than political conviction but a deeper set of beliefs.



Reading this and the posts of Alex at Army of Dude, non-combatants can begin to understand the bonds that keep these men together in the field and sustain them through the awful conditions of their service. In many ways, they live and fight for each other, in addition to the larger goals of their mission. So to claim their lives have been wasted is wrong, as they gave them willingly in a cause they believed in. It should also be said they died in the service of an agenda that many others also support but only in words, and that's where I feel the loss of the 3,907 US dead most keenly. This is where the cheerleading non-combatants and OYE differ: while they assume anyone who wants them to enlist wants them to be KIA, all anyone can expect is that that they stand and fight for what they believe in.



I encourage to read the whole post, no matter how you feel about the war, about national service, or about politics in general. Without being glib or needlessly saccharine, Major Olmsted (that's the last rank I can find for him: I'll update if I find it has changed) deserved that much.

Senator McConnell shows what his party thinks of soldiers

Who could fail to be appalled at this statement by Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky)?

Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.

Would Sen McConnell be so glib about these brave men and women if he knew any of them? But given the way young Republicans have ignored the need for more leadership in the war on whatever it is this week, it seems unlikely he would. It's all noblesse, no oblige. Whatever happened to "To whom much is given, much is expected?"

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Horne has responded to McConnell’s repugnant comment:

“I would say that Mitch McConnell owes every member of our service and the families of the fallen an apology, but no apology from him can take back the venom he has spewed at our troops, this time. For anyone to believe that casualties of war are somehow more acceptable because they were not draftees is disgusting. For the Republican leader in the United States Senate to say that is beyond repugnant.” [From Ditch Mitch KY | Ditch Mitch McConnell ]

If this is how the Republican leadership views the men and women they have sent into harm's way, it's no surprise their own able-bodied men and women have declined the nation's call to serve. Why would you volunteer to risk your life if your mentors and role models consider it so contemptible? I'm sure the families of these 63 soldiers wish they had known that the leader of the Senate Republicans thinks that volunteering is for chumps.

[hat tip Political Cortex: Military Families Turn On Bush Republicans]