In Illinois Town, Still a Time to Mourn for fallen soldiers

In Illinois Town, Still a Time to Mourn
Eight-Year Afghan War Brings Little Talk but a Powerful Undercurrent of Pain

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 26, 2009

MARSEILLES, Ill. -- They are adding a panel to the black granite war memorial, the one etched with the names of U.S. warriors killed in the Middle East and in Afghanistan. The other 10 panels are filled, but the troops keep falling.


Three weeks ago, it was four soldiers, including two from the Marseilles National Guard armory, blown up by a roadside bomb in Kunduz. Last Monday, it was four more, also by a bomb, making July the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began nearly eight years ago.

As U.S. casualties rise in Afghanistan, shifting attention from six years of war in Iraq, a familiar sense of loss is rippling through towns like this one. The Illinois National Guard alone has lost 17 soldiers in the past nine months, and President Obama is sending more troops to battle a resurgent Taliban and to stabilize the fractured country.

The deaths are an unwelcome reminder of a war that often draws little notice beyond the home towns of the deployed and the fallen. And even here, where yellow ribbons line Main Street and soldiers in uniform drop in to Bobaluk's or Di's Deli for lunch, conversation about Afghanistan is limited.

Asked how much talk he hears, Mayor Jim Trager answered flatly, "Not much."
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In Illinois Town, Still a Time to Mourn

That's the biggest problem righ there. The Mayor even said he doesn't hear much. Most Americans don't either. We do such a great job sending them off when wars begin. Unless it's a quick win or we happen to be obliterating the enemy with "shock and awe" people lose interest. That is, unless they happen to have a family member or friends there. Even then, it's hard to get them to pay attention. Spouses back home tend to not want to hear what just went on today in Afghanistan if their significant other is there. Same story with Iraq. They say it adds to the worry when they already have enough to worry about. It's easy to understand that kind of attitude but it is certainly not helpful when the significant other comes home and the spouse is clueless what they went through.

For the rest of the American population their ambivalence while consumed with their own problems is partly behind how we ended up in the mess we're in when it comes to taking care of the men and women we sent. The people running the media know when people just don't care and that time came a couple of years ago. I wonder from the reverse side. How can they care if they don't know what is going on?