Sept. 11 galvanizes US troops in Afghanistan

When you talk to veterans, especially Vietnam veterans, there is always this sense of remorse. Great sadness over the lives lost, for the wounded, for their innocence lost and for the fact that their lives were committed to combat while being taken from granted by the rest of the country.

There used to be morality even in war. Decisions to send men into combat were never supposed to be taken lightly. When you read about the history of war, there was a time when the people deciding to go to war, went with their troops, also risking their own lives. When our Revolution was losing support and the troops were losing hope, there was General Washington, right there on the front lines and enduring everything he was asking others to endure.

You can't help but wonder how much faster it would have ended had they received everything they needed when they needed it.

Just as then, we complain about how much money it costs, how long it takes, lose interest in it. Just as then, there are still men and now more women, risking their lives while we complain.

Why do we keep making the same mistakes? Why do we take such timid interest in the decision to send them? Why don't we ever demand true reasons about the necessity? Our interests should never stop there. We should always have assurances that the plans are equal to the lives we are sending and the sacrifices they are willing to make for what we ask of them. We should always make sure they have the best equipment they need along with everything else they need up to proper troop levels. We should always make sure all the plans are in place to take care of the wounded, the widows and the orphans, especially when you have fathers and mothers deploying into combat. The truth though is much different.

We don't make sure any of this is done. They pay while the rest of us complain and want to move on. We can't stand a long battle. We want it quick and painless. We don't want to see coffins covered with flags. We don't want to see the wounded at Walter Reed or any of the other hospitals. We don't want to hear them suffering, waiting for care or wanting anything from us. We want it over.

The problem goes much deeper than our ambivalence. Taking care of them, never seems to translated into our own brains that it should have been part of the deal all along.

So while we debated having troops in Iraq. While protestors on both sides fought over it, no one was fighting over them. No one was forming groups to get permits to protest the lack of care they were receiving. No one was marching thru the streets or making speeches about the fact they needed so much more than what they were getting and no one was screaming that they were killing themselves when they came home. The shame was on all of us and still is.

We now hear calls for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Yet while they are there, this is how they spent their day. They remember why they are there and what was behind their reason to join the military. The rest of us, well, we not only forgot about it, we forgot about them.

At 5:16 p.m., the time in Afghanistan when the first of two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City, a ceremony began at Bagram with an officer reading a minute-by-minute timeline of events on that day. The base's flag fluttered at half-staff as 200 soldiers and other military personnel sang "America the Beautiful" and the national anthem as the sun set.

Sept. 11 galvanizes US troops in Afghanistan
By HEIDI VOGT (AP) – 11 hours ago

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The Sept. 11 attacks were both a tragedy and a call to arms for many of the soldiers at this sprawling military air base — although few would have guessed that eight years on, the war in Afghanistan would still be raging.

Many of the troops now fighting here were high school students at the time. Some saw the attacks on TV during class, and vowed to sign up when they were old enough.

Army Sgt. Joshua Applegate of Springfield, Mississippi, was in high school when the planes hit the towers, and enlisted two years later, though he said he had wanted to do it right away.

"I like my country too much not to," said Applegate, who arrived in Afghanistan in April and now facilitates transport and other logistics at Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in the country, located just north of the capital, Kabul.

It's nearly eight years since U.S. forces invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, who remains at large. Now soldiers like Applegate are fighting a war that is shifting its focus amid waning public support.

Many troops called Friday's anniversary a galvanizing event, and said marking the day reminds them that the U.S. mission here is important.

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Sept. 11 galvanizes US troops in Afghanistan