Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts

8.21.2010

On Leaving Iraq

Sticking with a bad idea may be a great way to demonstrate perseverance however it does not ultimately make the bad idea a good idea. Seven year, hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands permanently affected, and the last American combat troops have finally left Iraq (not necessarily the two gentlemen at left, but I suppose it's possible).

You can argue the "making America safer" argument until you are blue in the face. Frankly the other seven reasons for invading Iraq were essentially lies or misguided at best so I guess you have to go with that one. Iraq was always the wrong war. There was never a valid reason to be there and if Obama accomplishes nothing in the next two years and you hate everything he has done in the last two years he has earned another vote from me.

For some of us, many of us these days, war is not an abstract concept that you debate over drinks, or read about on the news. War is Specialist Anderson nearly losing an arm and being medivac'ed out of theater in the middle of the night. War is the fiery Lieutenant Stovall simply not showing up in your office any more after he was killed by a roadside bomb. War is pointing a weapon at teenagers not knowing if their kids or terrorists. War is the thousands of soldiers who had to come home and work through their problems with the help of professionals and loving families and worse the thousands of soldiers who came home with problems but don't have loving families or access to professional help. There may have been a time for war, but it is most definitely time for peace.

7.02.2010

Irony?

Merriam Webster defines irony as, an incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result. So yesterday, more than five years after my final date of discharge, I was watching Kathryn Bigelow's powerful film Hurt Locker. The film portrays snapshots into the life of a explosive ordinance disposal team serving in Iraq. Well-crafted characters and vividly realistic sets really brought me back to my year in the desert. The movie earned six well-deserved Oscars (including Bigelow for Best Director).

So strangely enough buried in my usually nondescript mail today is a letter from guess who? My crazy old Uncle Sam was just writing to let me know that he felt bad about all that time I had to spend in the desert as well. Your uncle appreciates how challenging it was to readjust and the perseverance necessary to fit back in with normal folk (after working 70 hours a week staring at three computers in a room with no windows). Your Uncle Sam feels particularly badly for all of those months he made you serve after your contract ended...and he wants to pay me $500 for each of those months.

Now your crazy old uncle has been known for questionable integrity from time to time but I am optimistic. Not enough to buy a kayak mind you, just you know, window shop a little. ; )

4.29.2010

The Blog 2.0

Things a blog is unlikely to do for me;
1. make any money
2. make many friends
3. make me famous
4. combining 1 and 3, a blog is also unlikely to catapult me to a lucrative writing career after being "discovered."

Things that a blog is good for;
1. A constructive outlet to let one vent what's on their mind and a socially acceptable bit of self-centered vanity.

It's OK to blog, your's isn't likely to be any worse than mine.

So my wife and I live in a modest house in central New Hampshire (that's the state near the top right corner of the map, assuming you know how to hold the map). We have an almost three year-old son, affectionately referred to as "the boy." I am for the moment a full time student (four more classes) and a full time employee at a local bank. My greatest passion is my family (yes, really) eight years in the Army gave me a sincere appreciation for what really matters in life. I do have normal interest as well including politics, sports, and business (my major, B.S. in Business with an emphasis in Public Administration).

After I finish my bachelor's I am considering going straight into a master's degree at Plymouth State. Thinking about another two years of school makes me tired and Robinson Cano just pasted a home run to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead over the Orioles so maybe I should publish before I get to Debbie Downer.