I have such mixed feelings about the departure of the last combat brigade. I spent so much time in the country, from the days just after the invasion through 2009. I saw so much violence. So much craziness. I always figured I would die there. I traveled to Diyala, Mosul, the Syrian border, the "belts of Baghdad" and the border with Iran. I traveled in Humvees, Strykers, MRAPs, Helos and Ospreys.
Now because I was blown up in Afghanistan I've missed the Big Story. I think that will make it hard to ever have any closure on Iraq.
The guys here, and some of them were injured in Iraq, have barely mentioned the developments.
I was having brain tests as the Strykers were rolling across the border in to Kuwait. And oddly had a headache all day.
Wish I'd been there instead of here...
The ATF's evidence vault in el Paso
Photo: Moonpie
Southern Iceland
The Photos (Click on the image above)
The Mississippi Delta Blues
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Adventures in Mongolia
Trying to reach Turgen Mountain (Click the photo)
Montana Glacier National Park and beyond
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Help for Gaza
See story at the link below
The Iraqi Navy
Guarding the country's oil
Dog sledding in Alaska
The Photos (click on the image above)
Lions of the Serengeti
Eastern Afghanistan with U.S. troops
The Photos
Brian Chevalier
Reuters photo (see story link below)
A Kuwait desert rescue drill
Battle for Buritz
Iraqi National Police
Iraqi police graduate from Numiniyah
U.S. Military photo
Col. Michael Garrett, Commander of the 4th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division,on patrol with his soldiers
Flamethrowing Reporter
"Sometimes a full-blown fit just gets things done"--Moonpie
2 comments:
When you are ready to actively participate again and you will get to that, there will still be a war. There will still be a war 1000 years after that if there are still people.
In my life I have seen WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and numerous skirmishes not classed as war but where people were killed just the same. I have not seen a time when arms were not carried and used. Politicians and those who fall for it just call it something else.
If there are aliens somewhere cataloging the various species in the Universe I'm sure that under the heading of "Humans" the first description will be "Warlike".
You were there for the really big story. What happened yesterday is anticlimax because It's not finished there. It's not closed. Nobody has closure. And there is more to come.
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