August 21, 2005
DIFFERENCE
For many soldiers, this is the face of Iraq...
This is their experience and what they remember from their time in Iraq. But reader Tanker sent me a link to another face of war. It's another very real aspect of Iraq these days...
The difficulty with the war in Iraq is the differing missions. One soldier's experience could be mighty different from another's, and when both write home and tell friends and family what "war" is like, they're going to paint a very different picture. That's how my favorite reservist ended up in a conversation where someone said, "You guys just stayed in camp and took pictures, right?", when in fact over half of the soldiers in his unit saw major action and are suffering from PTSD. FOB Anaconda has a Baskin Robbins and salsa dancing night; my husband and his platoon spent 87 days living IN Iraq, outside the safe confines of an American FOB. If your daughter is lying around in a bikini in Iraq, you'll have a vastly different view on the uptempo of the war than the Marlboro Man's mom does.
Posted by Sarah at August 21, 2005 12:08 PM | TrackBackay-yi-yi, I am going to agree with you there. As for the female soldier thing, I agree with you. I was active duty, saw everything you are speaking about firsthand. Anyone who says otherwise is either naive or deluded. And this is coming from a dirty liberal.;)
Posted by: Jen at August 22, 2005 03:18 AMYou are doing a good job on your blog.
I am ashamed though, that young women, who should be creating life, are being soldiers and taking life, because the United States has so many cowardly young men.
I did my time in Viet Nam when men were men.
Greg-
Were the men braver then, or where they just, you know, drafted?
My boyfriend spent almost every night of his deployment to Iraq on an airbase, while only occasionally overnighting at an FOB, and ditto for this deployment to Afghanistan. Although he flies a lot, and that is pretty dangerous too, it certainly isn't as dangerous as doing patrols in Humvees Baghdad. I am sure I would be singing a different tune if he were in an infantry company and not an aviation one.
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at August 22, 2005 01:26 PMwell there has always been front line soldiers and REMF'S.which will cause resentment over time.i'm not sure how we should be fighting this war at this point.while progress has been made in some areas of iraq and afghanstan alot more needs to be done politically and security wise.i mean it's simple in one respect if you're not native middle eastern you can't walk the streets not without security teams unless you want to wind up possibly getting kidnapped or killed.it's hard to build a society in that kind of atmosphere.
Posted by: tommy at August 23, 2005 03:19 PMGod bless both the front-line soldiers and the rear area folks. Who's to say the bikini-clad woman didn't just complete a 15 hour day patching up a battle-damaged vehicle? I'll grant her a bit of pool time as I sit here fat, dumb, and happy with my wife and kids in beautiful 75 degree Wisconsin.
Posted by: Keith at August 25, 2005 02:30 AM