I had been waiting on the inevitable for about 1 1/2 years now. Finally that time has arrived. I've received orders to go to Iraq. I will now be amongst the many kossacks that are either going to, already at, or have returned from Iraq.
I can't tell you where I'll be stationed at or when I'll be sent over there, and I was a little reluctant to post this at first, as the military frown on liberals expressing their opinions. But after Leonard Clark got demoted for his blog, I knew I had to speak up (as should every liberal soldier). So here goes.
A lot of you are wondering why I'm even bothering to go into a war that I don't even support. Well, there are two big reasons for that.
The first reason (and the biggest one) is to look after my friends while I'm over there. I know it's a cliche that all us soldiers leave politics at the back door to protect our buddies, but it's a cliche because it's true. If I didn't go over there and one of my friends got their head blown off by an insurgent, my conscience would never let me sleep at night.
The second one is that on deployment it's easy to save money. I'm a single soldier who has racked up a few thousand dollars in debt trying to live on my own. After this tour is over, I'll not only have my debts paid off, but I'll have anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 saved up depending on how I spend my money. It's not a lot of cash, but it's more than enough to start over somewhere and find a decent job (if there's an economy when I get back).
I joined the Reserves in early 2002 as a response to 9/11. I truly wish that we (my company) could be used to find and kill or capture bin Laden instead of being in this quagmire which is a waste of time and resources that we've squandered not fighting bin Laden. I always find it ironic that the save conservatives backing the war in Iraq don't share my same desire to have bin Laden's head on a pike in the middle of Times Square, and yet have the nerve to call us liberals weak on terror. It's a sad situation.