We only learn their names when they come back in their flag-draped coffins and then they get to provide a sound bite for politicians. They've either made "the supreme sacrifice" or had their lives thrown away for no reason; it all depends on who's doing the talking.
It's easy to blame the government because it's their policy that's getting the young men and women killed, but really we are responsible because we let them do it. A politician only cares about getting re-elected and if you make that look seriously threatened you'd be amazed at how quickly they'd see the light.
We let our governments send these people overseas to be killed and it's far easier for all of us if we don't know their names or anything about them. If you knew they have four sisters who each serve in the military and a father who served for twenty-eight years despite two fairly serious wounds before they went off to serve, how would you feel?
If you know they tease each other because some of them outrank the others (but that's okay because everyone knows a lieutenant is only as good as her sergeant), and you know their father's story, how can they still be strangers whose fate you don't care about?
I didn't find out what my taxi driver's name was, or the names of his five daughters, but I wish I did. If they are going to go overseas in my country's name, even if I don't agree with the reasons for it, the least I can do is know their names before they leave, not after they come back and it's too late.
Isn't it the least we all can do?
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