Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Does Knowing Someone Involved Change Your View Of Iraq?
That question has been on my mind for about 24hrs.
I had a brief conversation with my mailman yesterday, and is usually the case when I see him (which is rare) I asked how his son was doing. His son is in the US Army and is currently deployed to Iraq in the Baghdad area.
I usually don't see my mailman because I am usually at work, but I arrived home as he was starting his work at our building yesterday because I was not feeling well. So I had the above mentioned conversation.
I have to say it got me thinking. His son will be in Iraq for about another 32 days. When he comes back he will be changing duty assignments so he will not be deployed again.
My best friend should be in Iraq now, but do to a last minute surgery he avoided an 18 month deployment to Iraq. One of my nephew's came very close to being deployed and for a reason I am not completely clear on did not get deployed to Iraq with the majority of unit. And finally one of my wife's first cousins was in the Baghdad area for an 18 month duty tour, but has been back to the states for a good period of time. (In fact the cousin was activated to duty again in response to Katrina.)
Back to the beginning point, I had this conversation with my mailman and asked how his son was doing. His response was "He's doing very well, but he had a bad week last week." This obviously raised concern on my part so I asked what had happened. "Well, one of his good friends was killed by a road side bomb while riding in an unarmored HumVee."
I have, and will continue, to support the efforts of our troops in Iraq. I have questions about the administrations actions in the prosecution of the Iraqi conflict. But that last statement by the mailman really got me thinking. If that was someone I truly knew, would my position on Iraq be different? I can't answer that, but I do thank Hashem every day that I don't have to answer that question. My family (this includes my best friend) are all safe, and they will hopefully stay that way. But it really got me thinking about the situation and raised some questions in my mind. I hope that what I have said here will possible do the same for others.
I had a brief conversation with my mailman yesterday, and is usually the case when I see him (which is rare) I asked how his son was doing. His son is in the US Army and is currently deployed to Iraq in the Baghdad area.
I usually don't see my mailman because I am usually at work, but I arrived home as he was starting his work at our building yesterday because I was not feeling well. So I had the above mentioned conversation.
I have to say it got me thinking. His son will be in Iraq for about another 32 days. When he comes back he will be changing duty assignments so he will not be deployed again.
My best friend should be in Iraq now, but do to a last minute surgery he avoided an 18 month deployment to Iraq. One of my nephew's came very close to being deployed and for a reason I am not completely clear on did not get deployed to Iraq with the majority of unit. And finally one of my wife's first cousins was in the Baghdad area for an 18 month duty tour, but has been back to the states for a good period of time. (In fact the cousin was activated to duty again in response to Katrina.)
Back to the beginning point, I had this conversation with my mailman and asked how his son was doing. His response was "He's doing very well, but he had a bad week last week." This obviously raised concern on my part so I asked what had happened. "Well, one of his good friends was killed by a road side bomb while riding in an unarmored HumVee."
I have, and will continue, to support the efforts of our troops in Iraq. I have questions about the administrations actions in the prosecution of the Iraqi conflict. But that last statement by the mailman really got me thinking. If that was someone I truly knew, would my position on Iraq be different? I can't answer that, but I do thank Hashem every day that I don't have to answer that question. My family (this includes my best friend) are all safe, and they will hopefully stay that way. But it really got me thinking about the situation and raised some questions in my mind. I hope that what I have said here will possible do the same for others.
// posted by Little Wolf @ Tuesday, November 15, 2005 
