sunken

sorry to be on a downward spiral today, but i got a bit of bad news today. some of you may know him, some may not. i've got a very close friend named brian. he is a walking warrior, the very embodiment of "the few, the proud, the marines." he and i have known each other since middle school, but it wasn't until high school that we became more than friends, more like brothers. we've walked our different paths in life: mine to college and calm stateside jobs, his to parris island, south carolina and exciting top secret missions. when our paths reconverge as they sometimes do, it's easily apparent that we've been close. it's been a few years now since i've seen him, but that's merely circumstantial.

he spent the better part of three years in japan, jumping out of planes, and diving beneath the waves of the sea of japan. trained austrailian troops way down under. he's been to iraq three times and come home safely each time. he's now in afghanistan, trying to help stabilize the mess its been in for the last 30 years. i got an email today that's made me sick to my stomach and brought this war on terror finally home to my life.

he was on his way back from a mission when an IED destroyed his humvee. he suffered a major concussion and some serious bruises. some others with him weren't as lucky. he'll be fine, and will be returning stateside in february. i rarely ask for them from my friends because he's been safe thus far, and the prayers watching him to date have kept him in one piece. say a prayer for him and his unit tonight, that they make it home safely. i surely appreciate it.

d.c. politics saturation

the funny thing about this city and the surrounding 'burbs is how saturated with politics everything is. everyone has an opinion about this or that and feels the need to share it when a tiny opportunity presents itself. case in point, last night as i shopped for the contents of a care package for an old friend. he's a marine, deployed in afghanistan. it's his fourth tour overseas; the previous three were in iraq.

i asked romona the cashier to keep my two bags of stuff separate, as one was a care package for a marine. we got to talking about his duties and deployments when out of the blue, "well, he's got bush to thank for that!"

silence. crickets. i didn't know how to respond. many of you don't know brian. he's a character to say the least. as long as i've known him, all he wanted to do was serve our country. as i thought more about it, it became clear to me why i'm so conflicted about the war.

do i think we were misled into iraq? more than likely. do i think that guys like brian bemoan their multiple deployments? absolutely not. if it weren't iraq or afghanistan, it'd be some other theater and far more covert. he'd be bored as hell stuck behind a desk, and while special ops guys are an anomaly, it is what he signed up for. he wouldn't still be at it after 11 years if he weren't good at it, and sad as it is, there's plenty of work for him to do. we're in too deep in iraq to cut and run. i don't think there's an easy answer, but i'm glad that there's been more positive news lately. hopefully, we can help straighten things out and our next president gets all the credit.