Three Freaking Years!?

I can't believe Blogspot hasn't kicked me off their servers by now.

Those who know me probably aren't surprised to know that I would gladly argue about anything for that long. Can you imagine what life would be like for my co-workers or my family if I didn't empty my spleen in this forum once in a while? Someone should do some research on the longevity of marriages where 'blogs are present. I suppose it's no more than a higher-tech diary, but there's got to be a research grant out there for some pot smoker to maintain his slacker/eternal student lifestyle by studying those effects. (I'm just trying to do my part to support academia)

I had the flu a few weeks ago and was stuck on the couch for four days. At the urging of my co-workers, I finally watched Saving Private Ryan during that spell. (yup, saw it for the first time last month) I gotta be honest here, I'm not a war movie fan, and this movie wasn't much more than a war movie... like a million others only with a bigger budget... to me. However, the character study made it better as did the fact that Cpt. Miller was an English teacher in his previous life.

I also looked back through this collection of three years of crap (Poup, technically). When I read the whining I included during my Iraq days and compared my job and circumstances there to Captain John Miller's experience in the movie, I felt like a real baby. I recently read the Bronze Star award citation that a family friend received in Vietnam and felt the same way. But as I read through Poup 2005, and 6 and 7, I was pleased to see a theme of hope (early on, anyway) and healthy doses of humor so as to not take myself too seriously, throughout. That helped a little. But what allows me to stand by what I wrote back then in my naive youth, was the real frustration at the meaninglessness of the war. That's what I whined about more than anything. And it isn't any less real regardless of the cozy comfort I was afforded in Iraq.

I can't help but think that I would have felt that frustration in Vietnam too. I'm sure many troops did. The fictional Captain Miller believed he was saving the world from the Nazis, and retaliating against the Japanese, so that probably helped him, but what was I doing? What were those guys in Vietnam doing? What has our 4000th OIF troop died for? That frustration was real regardless of the relative luxury I experienced in Iraq and since the questions still haven't been answered, I don't back away from anything I wrote then.

I was fortunate enough to never see actual combat. Bullets hit where I worked. Rockets landed weekly where I lived and worked, but I never went looking for it. In exchange for that relative safety, I had too much time to think about when that luck would run out and why we were all being subjected to this - especially those whose jobs took them out of the safety I had. I'm not saying active combat roles would be more fun (duh) I'm just saying it's probably a little easier to accept the propaganda... or even forget about the lack of an overall objective when your immediate objective is staying alive for another few mintues, and keeping your buddy alive while you're at it.

I hope no one ever interprets anything I've written here in a way that diminishes that individual mission (of staying alive) that combat troops in this or any previous war face(d). I hope I've made it clear that I truly believe the majority of troops on the ground do what they think is right whenever they can and I deeply respect the sacrifices those less fortunate than me have made. The vast majority of American troops are good people doing the best job they can under crappy circumstances, both physical and political and they deserve all the praise we can give them. I just wish we'd save that extreme commitment and willingness to sacrifice for a worthy cause. The safety of knowing that people like those I met in Iraq are on our side, defending our beliefs, is comforting. Knowing that if a real threat ever were leveled on this country those folks would stand between that threat and us, is a good feeling. If only we had the same level of effectiveness in identifying those threats.

Over the years I've also been encouraged by the ability of our nation's civilians to distinguish between the stupidity of this war and the obligation of its soldiers. Returning Vietnam vets deserved that and many didn't get it. In fact, given that today's force is entirely volunteer and many of the Vietnam troops were drafted, I think we kind of got it backward. But the point is, when troops enlist, they don't get the option of a signing statement. They don't get to pick one war to sit out. When their president calls them, they go. I've heard it said that were there a draft today, we might see the same reactions to the war that we saw during Vietnam. Perhaps that's true, but I'd like to think not. I won't waste much time on it cuz it's hard to compare when today's advice is to "go shopping."

When I went to OEF, I wasn't 100% sold, but I figured the rest would be explained to me and to the rest of the world later... on a need to know basis, that kind of thing. We'd shoved the Taliban back into Pakistan putting a serious dent in the future of Al Qaeda there (granted, we'd armed them a few years prior, but hey, how did we know they'd turn out to be such jerks.) We even curbed poppy production in Afghanistan, ensured their first free election in a long time, and were well on the way to handing the Afghanis their very own version of a democracy. Life was good. My involvement was mild, and I came home with a sense of having contributed to something.

Then we all but abandoned the Afghanis to invade Iraq. Between the bad intelligence, the brilliant exit strategy, the fact that we've pissed off and inspired more potential terrorists than we've killed, that my grandkids will pay for it, that we re-elected the genius who took us there AFTER we saw his plans unfold with our very eyes, and there are no signs of stopping it, well, you know the drill.

That still pisses me off. That frustration is still very real... for the 4000 of ours dead and for the 100,000 plus others and so I'll probably keep writing about it and lots of other things that piss me off. I hope I can keep writing about it until it stops.

I'm a pretty lucky guy. I get to write about the things that make me smile on occasion too and with my military retirement now counted down in months, there's a lot to smile about. Just imagine what kind of stuff I'll put here once I'm free of the bonds of the Uniform Code of Military Justice!!

Or when I find out my career field is under the stop-loss provision!

Anyhoo,
Thanks for sharing the ride with me. Make no mistake, I do this primarily for my own entertainment but, like sex, it's always more fun when others are involved!!
I look forward to further involvement.
Luth,
Out