A Southern toll

Another Alabamian has died while serving his country in Iraq. According to his local paper, "Army Sgt. 1st Class Stephen J. White, 39, was one of five American soldiers killed in action Jan. 6 when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Najaf, south of Baghdad." He was buried today.

As noted previously, the South is paying an outsized portion of the Iraq war's toll. The number of reservists from Southern states is greater than most of the nations participating in the so-called "coalition of the willing." Of the soldiers from Alabama killed in Iraq in recent months, most have not been the typical stereotype of a young man cut down in his prime. The victims have been men in their late 30s and 40s who were from small towns. See here, here and here.

One gets the sense that this toll - both in terms of the age of the victims and the holes they are leaving in small Southern towns - is not fully realized across the country. You can get a sense the frustration in the poem written by one of Sgt. White's sisters:

"Mr. Bush, Mr. Bush:
Just how do you feel?
My brother arrived home from Iraq today.
Because of your war, his body is breathless,
Cold and still.
He went over there and fought a battle you alone chose to fight.
Mr. Bush Mr. Bush:
Why don’t you get on the battlefield one night?
You allied a country you felt should be free.
But for us you’ve enslaved our family with pain and grief,
Which freedom to us will never be.
Mr. Bush, Mr. Bush:
I want you to see just what you’ve done
For us the battle will never be over,
It is a fight that can’t be won.
Mr. Bush, Mr. Bush:
You they should never re-elect.
They should pack you up and send you to Iraq
As a United States reject.
Maybe, Maybe a draft will be called and your daughters
Will have to go to Iraq and represent.
How would you like that, Mr. Bush, Mr. Bush,
Our. President?"