A Marine CH-53 Sea Stallion crashed in the western deserts of Iraq today killing 31 Marines. It’s a very saddening story and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of their families. What I do not understand is people thinking that this was something that was “caused” by the war in Iraq, because it wasn’t. There have been multiple incidents in the U.S. (and other foreign military bases) where planes, helicopters, and trucks have crashed and killed many service men, but no one seems to make a huge fuss about them. I have seen numerous comments around the web about how this shows we should not be in Iraq. I hate to be the one to break to all of you but we are in Iraq and complaining about Bush and how Kerry would have done a better job achieves nothing. N-o-t-h-i-n-g.
Looking at the casualty numbers it seems that a lot (not a majority) of casualties have been caused by non-combat related incidents (car accidents, falls, etc.). Do you blame those things on the war? Surely not. If one of the same car accidents happened in the states people wouldn’t picket with signs saying “Pull our troops out of Ft. Hood!”. No, people would, sadly, shrug it off.
I am not saying forget these Marines because they did not die while being shot at, I am saying mourn them as soldiers but do not use them as a reason to say that everything in Iraq is Fubar.