Make up your mind

2 swedish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan this week. It's a great tragedy and my thoughts go out to their families.
But guess what, people die. The thing is that it always hits closer to home when it's two of your countrymen that die.
I can not stress enough that the words to come are NOT words to diminish their death, but words to make their demise was not in vain.

There are people who like to voice their opinion and they do it in a national forum like the swedish newspapers Dagens nyheter and Aftonbladet for example and hence their words weigh much heavier than mine.
My issue with that fact is that these are the same people who were outraged over the war in Darfur, the coup d'etat in Burma and the great injustices in Afghanistan.
They asked for, no demanded that the world including Sweden would do something about it.
And in Sweden as in the rest of the world, there were young men and women who believed in making the world a better place.
I think that is an underlying feeling in all of us, to make a difference. Some just do a bit more.

The problem that now presents itself is that the same people who wanted the countries around the world to act are now the same people who get cold feet when they see the result of their request. And I would bet my bottom dollar that if they were handed a gun and a mission, they wouldn't do anything. It's the classic "someone should do something, as long as it's not me".
But hey, guess what? People die in wars. Swedes, Americans, Afghans, Brazilians.....all do. These servicemen however, have chose their profession with that in mind and it would be a greater loss if we just packed it up now.

Again, the loss of their lives is a great tragedy, but I do believe that they believed in what they were doing, which was try to make the world a better place.
But I guess that's the way of the world. There are doers and there are talkers.
Unfortunately I'm a talker as well. But at least I stand firm. Like Hemingway wrote:
-The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.
I believe the second part.