‘Tis the season to be wasteful.

Consumers across the nation over are rushing to the stores to buy gadgets and trinkets and ribbons and rings. You must get something for everyone, even if that thing is fated to spend the next few years dusty on a shelf or dropped and forgotten in the crevice between the bed and the wall. It is the season where “Made in China” becomes the most widely distributed phrase in the country. Take a second this season to think your purchases through, a little beyond “shiny,” “soft” and “office gift.” Think about what it took to make it, ship it and whether you should really support the effort to bring more junk into this world.

I should mention Copenhagen, too. On Dec. 7, leaders from all around the world, including Barack Obama, met for their first day of talks for a global climate action plan. The deal will be based on one from a similar conference at Kyoto, Japan in 1997, which the U.S. did not sign, due to in part its opinion that too many concessions were made to Third World nations. The talks conclude on Dec. 18. You can find out what’s happening and take action by visiting www.1sky.org.

But then I read an article that had the effect of both upsetting me and forcing me to explore the subject at hand. I am referring to an article on our soldiers in Iraq. It seems that the unpopularity of the war has been projected onto the soldiers, and that is tremendously unfair. For a second, let’s put ourselves in Iraq, into the turmoil, and explore our potential reactions.

According to “The Forever War” by Dexter Filkins, there are many warring parties in Iraq, including Kurds, Americans, Sunnis and Shiites. The last two parties are the largest, fighting both each other and the occupiers: us. When you see tapes of beheadings in Iraq, these are the Sunnis making them. Shiites don’t make tapes, but they are known for their beatings when they kidnap people. The people targeted primarily are garbagemen, bakers, teachers, American supporters/employees and, of course, Americans.

These choices are made to destroy communities: Garbage heaps up on the street, there is no bread, kids don’t go to school and any effort at building infrastructure by Americans is desecrated. There are many rules for the citizens to follow, so as not to make either party angry. If the citizens are in constant fear, imagine what the Americans feel. Every road has a potential car bomb, every ally has an insurgent, every citizen is a potential enemy, impossible to tell apart. Women are strapped with bombs and sent to explode, children don AK-47s and throw rocks and bricks at the soldiers and insurgents shoot out of inhabited quarters.

And then the soldier is told to be humane. The violence in the country permeates every aspect of life, and everybody is scared. After all, terrorist attacks don’t only kill Americans; in fact, they mainly kill Iraqi civilians, at weddings and funerals, at voting polls, at ribbon cutting ceremonies, on lines of people waiting to get into work, etc.

According to “Navy SEALs accused of punching accused Falluja plotter,” a Nov. 25 CNN article, Navy SEALs may serve a year in jail for punching an insurgent who had organized a murder of four Americans and then strung their bodies across a bridge. This makes me clench my fists.

It’s true, order must be kept amongst soldiers; they shouldn’t resort to the same type of violence inflicted upon them. However, there is a lot of anger running through their veins, fear in their hearts and I’m sure they want revenge. Would you be able to restrain yourself from a punch? There needs to be some objectivity in our punishments for people thrown into such a situation. It is not the fault of the soldiers that politicians, removed from these kinds of circumstances, had made this decision for American foreign policy.

It is called the “Long War” after all, and it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s enough to drive anyone … to punch a terrorist.