If you must know, I could go to school without the GI Bill comfortably. Since I was 15, I’ve had this cool new thing called a “job.” I joined the army when I was 17, in no legal trouble more severe than a few MIP's. I've no hard-on for personally killing Osama bin Laden (or anyone, for that matter), or single-handedly crushing global terrorism. I volunteered for the Army, and I volunteered for my deployment. Granted, it’s nothing compared to the sacrifice some of you folks have put in for the democratic process, with your campaign contributions, Obama puff-paint sweatshirts, and all that glitter you bought for your “Change” signs, but it’s my little way of justifying myself as an American, doing my little part to contribute to something bigger than myself.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that some progress, no matter how much some folks want to trivialize it, HAS been made. Saddam’s gone, elections happened, and we’re trying to help strengthen and hold together Iraq’s very own security forces, and fragile government.

You won’t find me arguing as to whether or not we should have been there in the first place, and certainly won’t find me defending the short-sightedness in the planning of the subsequent occupation and rebuilding process. I couldn’t even say for sure if the obscure goal of a free and independent Iraq is even possible. I also provide no great end-all be-all of solutions to the question of “What the fuck do we do now?” It’s safe to say that this is a job for greater minds than mine.

The reason I continue to respond to these body count threads is that they obviously provide no solution either. Posting a number as if it were a fitting representation of these men and women’s sacrifice shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what they did for their comrades, and why. People have no right to say whether or not they died for no reason, and no right to assume that they wouldn’t do it again. That goes for me as much as it goes for the OP.

People that think it’s just a matter of “Let’s leave now” are guilty of the same sort of irresponsible over-simplification of an enormous problem that the people who started the war are guilty of. The same goes for any sort of scheduled troop reductions that don’t coincide with a similar amount of progress on the part of the Iraqis. There may come a time when we’re forced to “cut our losses” and limp back home without having accomplished the mission. I find it hard to grip for even a moment that the appropriate time for leaving is this election year.

Poorly planned? Unjustified? It almost certainly was from what I understand. Wars are generally stupid, imperfect by their very nature, and “justification” is often hard to come by when you’re talking about killing other human beings.

I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t assume that I’m some dumb grunt that just blindly supports war in general (some of us probably are, but it’s an unfair assumption). I follow orders, and I do what needs to be done for the other men and women next to me. Don’t presume to have picked up on something so “painfully obvious” that we in the service have not. Don’t assume that we in the service are just victims of a failed agenda. We all volunteered, and we’re trying to accomplish what’s been asked of us.

I guess that’s easy to say, given that I came back alive, with all my arms and legs.

I suppose the rest is up to you “enlightened” individuals of our society.

-paul