It's been a while

It's been a while since I really blogged anything here. I'm hoping to change that. It gets difficult because for those of us working at Headquarters, it is Groundhog Day. For anyone who may not get that reference, it simply means that each day is a repeat of the day before. Everyday is Tuesday around here, nothing ever changes. Well, I shouldn't say nothing, the food at the chow hall changes, on it's assigned rotation. I'm not complaining, just explaining why there aren't new exciting posts on my blog all the time.

I did have a bit of luck yesterday. I was actually in my room during the day for once (don't ask, it was an unpleasant flu bug) and heard the familiar boom of an explosion followed quickly by the shockwave hitting my trailer fairly hard. I thought "Hey, that's a close one!" and took a look out the door to see what I might see. Sure enough, there was the smoke cloud from the bomb. I grabbed my camera to try and catch it before it dissipated too much and just as I was getting ready to take the picture, another one went off. So, I was able to get a pretty good shot of that. I was chatting with Cindy on the computer that night (or was it the next morning? I don't know, it's all Tuesday!) and sent her the picture telling her that when I say they are close, I don't mean really close. Well, apparently she felt differently and thought they were too close for her comfort. Here's the picture, you judge for yourself.



On a separate note, I would like to say that I do spend some time on what is known as the "left side of the blogosphere". Why would I do anything as crazy as that? A couple of reasons. One is entertainment. There really are some wacky people over there with some very bizarre thoughts about the direction that this country should be going. Many, if not most, of them are outright socialists. Many of them still believe that 9-11 was and inside job perpetrated by the White House. Like I said, many of these people are crazy as loons (no offense to any real loons that might read this). So, the main reason I read some of this stuff is purely for the entertainment value. The second reason is that I feel, like Sun Tzu, that it's important to know your enemy. So, I admit to slumming sometimes on the wrong side of the internet tracks if you will.


One recurring theme that I come across is "supporting the troops". The prevailing attitude on the left is "support the troops, bring them home". The best way, according to them, to support the troops is to get them out of harms way as quick as possible. Bring them home and ensure they are never put in a position like that again. Hmmm. Interesting stance on the issue. My only question is, did any of these people ask the troops if that's how they want to be supported? Did anyone ask the troops if they feel these people are supporting them? I personally do not feel that they support the troops at all. I think they despise the troops. Sometimes someone on the left will slip up and let their true feelings come out. Most recently this has been done by Senator Kerry http://newsbusters.org/node/8741 and Rosie O'Donnell http://newsbusters.org/node/12823. This is how the left really feels about the troops, but they learned their lesson after suffering a backlash at their shabby treatment of the troops returning from the Vietnam war. So, the new thing is to say you're supporting the troops while at the same time stabbing them in the back. They also "support the troops" by pointing out every mistake made by anyone in the military and painting the rest of us with that same brush. They also make it a point to count, and post on their sites, every death here in this war. Some support.


Pulling the troops out of a conflict does not necessarily equate to support, particularly if the troops in question believe in what they are doing in the conflict. My analogy is to a football game, the Super Bowl, in fact. It's the beginning of the third quarter, your team is down by a touchdown, and they've suffered a few injuries. How do you support your team? By cheering them on and hoping to motivate them to win against the odds? Or do you tell them that they best course of action is for them to quit the game right now and go home so they don't suffer any more injuries, and it's a game that they can't win anyway. This is what we are getting over here. We are suffering casualties 0ver here, we've had some setbacks, but most of us believe in what we're doing over here. Even if it hasn't been managed as well as it could be, we know that should we leave now, the country of Iraq will most likely disintegrate into bloody chaos. We need to be here until the Iraqi Government can handle it's own security.

Do the troops want to be here? I haven't spoken with every one of them, so I can only give you my impression. I want to be here. Cindy may not want me here (for safety reasons only) and I don't like being away from home any more than the next guy, but I believe in what we are doing over here and I like what our unit is doing here. It's an important job. The morale here among the troops is high, even among those that are going out on the patrols every day. Granted, there is quite a bit of wear and tear on these guys, some on their second or third rotation. However, the recruiting and retention (read: reenlistment) rates for all branches of the military, including the Army, who is bearing the brunt of the casualties, are through the roof http://amyproctor.squarespace.com/blog/2007/5/11/military-recruitments-shockingly-high-despite-war.html. For the most part, the people that are here, want to be here. We want to finish the game with a win. Support us by cheering us on, not by pushing for us to accept defeat and leave with out tails between our legs.

Ok, that was my soapbox for the day. Don't be surprised to see a bit more of this from time to time. Spices things up and keeps life interesting.