Iraq War. What Is It Good For?

Sharon’s emotions regarding the deployment of Andy were very eloquently said. Now, this stupid, senseless war run by stupid, senseless people, has a face. When it has a face, you begin to care. As the stepmother of one of those “faces” (the picture below was taken during the time when Jeff was in Iraq for 13 months), please know the following:

The news is not your friend. There will be times when it is best to remain uninformed because if you get one more bit of info about one more incident, you will disintegrate. Most of the time, we were glued to the TV, but every now and then, we would experience Info Overload and have to avoid the TV and news. It wasn’t denial – it was survival. Because you have to always remain upbeat for your soldier. So at those times, we would do extra shopping for him and send him LOTS of extra treats.

Another way to send you off the edge when you have a family member over there: Cars driving slowly in front of your house. Especially sedans. Heart attacks happen this way. When the news is particularly bad and you haven’t heard from your soldier, sometimes the only way to get through it is to say “okay, there have been no military types ringing my doorbell, so he must still be safe”. And then, a damned car drives s-l-o-w-l-y past. Your heart stops. It keeps going. You’re okay and deflate like a balloon from the huge wave of relief. Once, we had one back up and DRIVE IN. We both nearly stroked. Then, it backed out, turned around and s-l-o-w-l-y drove away. Egads. SOMEONE is trying to kill us!!!

There is anger you will have to deal with because your world is so wrapped up in worrying about your soldier and their comrades and all the soldiers over there. You look around and you see all YOUR friends and associates going about their business like nothing is happening. Don’t they CARE? Why don’t they CARE!! It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just they haven’t a clue. They believe the Faux News network (aka Fox News) and Rush and Hannity and Tony Snow and W because that’s what they want to believe. It is getting better, as evidenced by the last election, but where is the outrage? Where are the protests? How can we say we “support the troops” when we aren’t protesting their being involved in frivolous combat? If we truly support these troops, why are they over there??? What is the point? Why are we supporting their being in harm’s way for NO GOOD REASON?! We’re there because of lies. Why don’t we demand they come home and instead, we’ll send the liars and their families over there since they wanted this war so badly. Obviously, the anger does not go away just because your soldier is home.

Then, there’s the anger over your soldier never really being “out” of the service even when they are discharged. They can be called up up to 8 YEARS or longer after they are “out”. We’re sentencing our “volunteers” to indentured servitude (military slaves?). I have a friend at work who’s son was discharged from the Marines two years ago and has just been called up to go back to Iraq for 15 months. This disrupts schooling, work, LIFE. It’s mentally destructive. What kind of country are we to do that to our volunteer soldiers?

And still our troops are sent over without adequate training, supplies, armor. They get there, they spend their time being targets counting the days until they can go home, and THEN, they’re told, oh, sorry, you have to stay 3-6 more MONTHS. Maybe more. See, we need a “surge”, so we need more troops, but gee whiz, we’re sort of over extended, so you won’t mind staying longer? Oh, and while you’re at it, when your Commander and Chief shows up to rally the troops – be sure to smile and cheer, otherwise we’ll court-martial you.

So I’m asking this: Where are the sons and daughters of the Bush’s, the Cheney’s, the Congressmen and women and the military contractors and CEO’s? If this is such a “just” and “noble” war, why aren’t these kids over there being blown up? Yet ours can be overextended, without armor. Note the bandolier Jeff is wearing in this picture. He was BEGGING for 12 gauge nitro-mag shells for perimeter patrol from us, instead of the military issue ones. (We couldn’t send them due to laws that would end us vacationing rather permanently in Gitmo.) Do you know that they have to pay for all their own uniforms, weapons, etc? Isn’t that a laugh? You have to PAY to go to a war you don’t want to fight and can’t get home from. If you are injured or killed, the military will look at any way possible to declare it a “non-combat” event so survivor pay and injury pay won’t be paid out. I’m sorry, but to my way of thinking, they are not there on holiday. They were ordered there, so if they die there, it’s COMBAT related!! The way we treat our soldiers is pathetic. We say all the right things now about “supporting the troops” but we don’t really do it. We pay lip service, pat ourselves mentally on the back, and go back to our lives. We don’t protest this war because we’ve bought into the “war protests = you don’t support the troops” propaganda from the White House, the GOP, and Faux News. How un-American is THAT? You protest, peacefully, when you see a wrong that needs to be righted. THAT’S what America is supposed to be about!

We found the picture on line when we were digging around for ANY info we could find on his troop. It was such a surprise – we found a website with pics from his battalion and we’re scrolling through them when suddenly – Oh My GOD – it’s JEFF!!! And he’s SMILING!? He has the craziest stories to tell from this time. The camel spider stories are both funny and terrifying at the same time. Then there was the time he managed to get a call to us (we were at work) and we’re conference talking to him when suddenly, there was screaming and shouting and a loud *BOOM*. The phone is dropped on his end, but we can still hear chaos in the background. We’re screaming “JEFF! JEFF!” when we start hearing laughter. Jeff gets back on the line and says “Sorry about that, they just launched a mortar, but forgot to tell us. Incoming/outgoing – they all sound the same”. He tells about new recruits coming over and saying things like “Boy, I can’t wait to be under a mortar attack” or “I can’t wait to be in a fire fight”. He’d say in return “You must be f***ing crazy”. After their wish(s) was granted and they’re scared beyond all belief, Jeff would say “Happy now?” The way he’d tell it though, you’d be laughing hysterically, even though it wasn’t funny. He’d tell us that he’d never sleep in the tents after an incoming mortar blew up in the sleeping quarters. The only guy hurt was one who was new and was still able to sleep through little sounds. Jeff swears he was still not quite awake, but already half way to the bunker when the mortar went off. (The guy, btw, survived.) Jeff was VERY twitchy for about a year after he came home. Couldn’t sleep – the least little sound snapped him wide awake. ANY debris in the road had him (and every one else home from there) swerving madly because, to them, it could be a bomb! Overhead highway passes and any likely ambush spot were cause for great concern. His eyes never stopped moving and he was very tense. He talked about 100mph initially. Adrenalin does not go away immediately. He didn’t take his “vacation” (i.e., leave) home during his deployment because he was afraid he’d lose his combat edge if he came home and “relaxed”. Remember I said he stopped sleeping in the tents? He’d sleep on top of a truck next to the gunner’s turret so he’d be close to a gun in case of attack. He was a communications specialist assigned to a military police unit in the Sunni Triangle. The Iraqi interpreters and police they were training would give away strategic info (including base layout) to insurgents. The troop tents were prime targets, so the gun trucks were safer to sleep on then in the tents. (Jeff was trained once he was over there to be a gunner as well as his communications duties) Tell your loved ones over there to NEVER turn their back on any Iraqi, no matter the age or sex. NEVER. Jeff said they always made sure they were in front of him and that he always had a gun generally pointed in their direction. They’d shoot you in the back otherwise. Same with civilians. Sad, but true. Also, they will want long underwear at some point because they WILL get used to the 130 degree + heat during the day, but when it drops to 100, they’ll be cold (really). Desert, you know. Also, small brushes to clean the sand out of their weapons. Jeff cleaned his guns several times a day to be sure that they stayed operational. We even sent him a gun cleaning kit for his shotgun (the one he was begging for nitro-mag shells for). And if your soldier doesn’t have a camelback, they’ll need one of those. The more water it can hold, the better. (http://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/Pages/CAMELBAK/camelbak-all-military.html )

Your soldier will love to get sausage (there’s the kind that doesn’t need refrigeration that you see in supermarket aisles. They love getting that!) and crackers. Sweets. But be aware of the temperature – candy & sweets tend to melt in the high heat of Iraq . And we’re heading into summer now. Powdered Gatorade is a must. Caffeine pills (the stupid Military believes whole heartedly in troop sleep deprivation) so they can stay awake when on perimeter patrols. Books. Puzzles. Pictures. Letters. I sent a package a week to Jeff because they need to have something to look forward too. I’d send cookies that were store-bought during the summer because the preservatives helped them survive the heat. Otherwise, homemade went funky. You can’t really send homemade until October. Sunscreen, anti-itch stuff, bug spray. At one point, we were sending toilet paper because the stupid military wasn’t providing them any! Find out if they have a freezer. If so, send boxes of those liquid pops that when frozen, become lovely treats. You will be blessed as a GOD for doing that!