Iraq: The new cancer

This occurred to me while amidst 11 drunken women at a "bunco night". Iraq is the new cancer. Lets all take this time to think about what the word cancer denotes. We immediately think of pain and suffering, of an affliction which often is not caused by anything one may or may not have done, and the constant living with the feeling of dread and fright. So yes, while Iraq does not carry the weight of cancer in all respects, it certainly is up there with a similar response to hearing the news.
If someone tells you they have cancer, one of the first responses is- oh, I’m so sorry. People do not know enough about cancer to understand how to help someone suffering from it. We can’t offer them chicken noodle soup and 7UP to cure it. The aspects of the disease are so beyond the average person that all we can do is apologize for their suffering and tell them we’ll hope for the best for them. And really, what more can one do.
Telling someone your husband is in Iraq generates the same response. No one knows how to deal with that. And you get the token, I’m so sorry. And my personal favorite: "how do you do it? I could never do that… that must be so hard". Um, yes. It is hard. So the only accurate way I can equate my feelings in that moment is to someone who is sharing that they have a life threatening disease. Wow, that paints a bleak picture.
Yet, with cancer, there is treatment. There is chemotherapy or radiation… even surgery to cut out the bad. How, then, do you treat the disease of Iraq? One may search the medicinal treatment, as many do, and pump themselves full of anti depressants, but what does that do? Mute your body so that you don’t have to deal? Because for most of us in this there is no chemical reason to be on antidepressants, just the hope for an escape from this disease. So what if you opt out of medication? There is no logical treatment for Iraq, nothing anyone can say to make you better- no prescription any doctor can conjure up to put to rest these feelings of loneliness, fright, and pain.
So what do we do in the meantime? While waiting for a cure for Iraq? Well, personally, I sit and fester in my Iraq disease. It is always living inside of me, sometimes dormant… sometimes scratching at the surface to be soothed. But in all of this, the fact remains- there is no cure for Iraq.