Vrbana Bridge

There's a song I've heard quite a few times called "Vrbana Bridge," by Jill Sobule. It was one of those songs which I enjoyed the melody of, and never really bothered to read the lyrics.

Well, today I read the lyrics, and did a bit of Googling, where, to my horror, I learned that it was a true story:

Two lovers lie dead on the banks of Sarajevo’s Miljacka river, locked in a final embrace.

For four days they have sprawled near Vrbana bridge in a wasteland of shell-blasted rubble, downed tree branches and dangling power lines.

So dangerous is the area no one has dared recover their bodies.

Bosko Brckic and Admira Ismic, both 25, were shot dead on Wednesday trying to escape the besieged Bosnian capital for Serbia.

Sweethearts since high school, he was a Serb and she was a Moslem.

"They were shot at the same time, but he fell instantly and she was still alive," recounts Dino, a soldier who saw the couple trying to cross from government territory to rebel Serb positions.

"She crawled over and hugged him and they died like that, in each other’s arms."

Squinting through a hole in the sandbagged wall of a bombed-out building, Dino points to where the couple lie mouldering amid the debris of Bosnia’s 14-month civil war.

What more can you say? I suppose the reason I'm posting this to RS is to share the visceral reaction it gave me in the gut about the human cost of war.

Sarajevo was a long time ago. But the fact is that war breeds tragedy and death. That's not exactly a new observation, but it bears repeating. Saddam Hussein and his regime were monsters. I will admit that. And I think that deposing him was a moral act. But we did so in a hasty and unprepared manner, without enough manpower, and as a result, we f—ked the job up. And because we did the job in a supremely half-assed manner, we created a situation where there is going to be a hell of a lot more tragedy, death, sorrow, and cost in human life. And that, to me, was an immensely immoral act.

"We will serve with the best interest of this country. We will go to war if we need to. We will do whatever it takes to protect this country because we love it so much. But with that comes the obligation to the government of 'don't abuse it.' Don't make what we do a waste. Or don't put our lives in jeopardy if there's not a really good reason. It wasn't a proper use of American troops. It wasn't a proper use of my life, of my friend's lives, or the Marines who I've seen die around me. It's not a proper use." — Lee Buttrill, Seargant, Marine Corps, Veteran of Iraq War