Entry #43: May 3, 2006

Camp Buehring, Kuwait (Somewhere near the Iraq border)

You want to see a good account of the War in Iraq, watch Over There, a TV series that came out on Fox not too long ago. Shawn has it and I watched it for the first couple of episodes today. Brace yourself though, it shows you a realistic account of what Soldiers deal with both on fighting the war front and with dealing with the home front.

It has infidelity, legs blown off, family problems, young men and women in combat, life or death decisions these brave souls face everyday. These Americans are mostly unable to legally buy a beer back home, but are expected to make decisions that affect more lives and have more influence on global politics than the average American encounters in his or her entire life. And that’s just in their first week in-country.

We appreciate the support while we’re over here more than you know. I’m proud of the way the majority of our country has rallied behind the troops even if they don’t like why we’re here, Cindy Sheehan be damned. I’m thankful the American people haven’t called me and my fellow Soldiers baby-killers and spat on us. My only request is that when we return; support us more then, for that is when we will need it the most.

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), wives and husbands cheating on each other while the spouse is deployed, facing life without a limb, the decision on whether to light up a car that refuses to stop at a checkpoint, even though you’re not sure whether they want to blow you up or they are just trying to take their sons and daughters to school. This is only the beginning.

There are IEDs disguised as rocks, hidden in trash bags, buried by little kids, the same ones we throw chocolate to on the streets. There are women hiding suicide bomb vests under their dish dashas, men in black turbans hiding on rooftops where innocent families live, sniping away as we drive by. There are religious militas fighting fellow Muslims as well as us. There are Shiite and Sunni, fighting not unlike the Protestants and Catholics of 500 years ago in Europe. Welcome to Iraq, where civilization began and then stood still. And so the Soldier’s life continues…