A moment’s thought won’t kill … you

In these early days of 2006, when it seems as if we’ve all earned the right to start again with – what’s the cliché? – a fresh slate, it’s strange to think that American troops are again waging war in distant places. But it’s true: They’re facing danger both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One problem with war, of course, is the ever-present dilemma: How do you support the troops while at the same time protesting conflicts that you might see as unnecessary. Or even unjust. It was a particular problem during Vietnam, and I was one of those who faced resentment – from both sides of the political spectrum, mind you – when I returned home in 1969.

But a bigger problem – one that Hollywood showed in Hal Ashby’s 1978 film “Coming Home” and in Randall Wallace’s 2002 study of war “We Were Soldiers” – involves the issue of grief: How do you handle the loss of a loved one killed in war?

In a commentary published today in the Washington Post , Paul E. Schroeder, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq – Marine Lance Cpl. Edward “Augie Schroeder II – expresses his grief in a moving plea.

His point: His son’s death was a “waste.”

Maybe. Maybe not. That’s a question that each of us has to answer on his or her own. Schroeder, at least, has earned the right to say whatever he wants – though his loss was much too high a price to pay for that right.

The good and bad for the rest of us is that we don’t have to grieve. Truth is, we can just go back to doing whatever we feel the need to do during this first week of the new year.

But maybe we should. Grieve, that is. Waste or no, Lance Cpl. Schroeder and the thousands of others who have died during their duty deserve at least a moment’s thought before we take another bite out of that Big Mac we like to call freedom.

Comment here.

Below: Keri Russell, Simbi Khali and Madeleine Stowe star as three of the women who wait back at home, some of whom must deal with the loss of their husbands, in Randall Wallace’s “We Were Soldiers.”

Paramount Pictures publicity photo