Filling Gaps

Ok, so I lied about posting much more now that I have the internet. The bottom line is really that not much changes here on a day-to-day, or week-to-week basis. Days blur together and there isn’t much to differentiate one day to the next. That’s probably a good thing though as far as making the time pass. This is probably why professional writers don’t write about themselves as much as they write about subjects, or other people. Your life isn’t interesting to you when you’re busy living it.

The weather is changing in that it’s cooled down considerably; the high the other day was 94. Sounds hot, but when you’re used to 114-120, it’s almost pleasant outside at 94 degrees. When it cooled down at night under 70, I was freezing and needed three blankets on my bed to sleep at night. Due to Ramadan business has slowed some in some aspects and sped up in others. The thinking is that in anticipation the bad guys threw everything and the kitchen sink at us when we got here to try and deter us. Truth or wishful thinking? Time will tell. I don’t think they’re expecting us to stay, so they’re in for a rude awakening.

As you might have seen in the news, our brigade has lost some soldiers. I can’t begin to tell you how it feels. The part I have the hardest time getting over is the absolute waste of life is exposes you to. Everything these people have ever done; every day, every memory and every ounce of effort that went into making that person what they were is abruptly ended. It’s just a waste; that’s the only word that really comes to mind. As you try and go about your daily work, it’s hard to not think of the family and friends who are having their worlds turned upside down. If we lost a single person in this tour it’d be one person too many, so multiple losses hit especially hard.

With the Department of Defense no longer publicizing enemy losses due to the fact that our losses versus theirs is longer an indication of how the war is going, they should have also considered that in a war that is growing more and more popular, the morale of the people on the ground and the common mind at home see consolation when they see in the man to man fight at least, we are supremely superior. When you consider the situation, it’s hard to believe how superior we are when they come out and face us. We win where we fight, plain and simple. Even still, it is no consolation to the people who have lost loved ones in this war, or any war.

Until next time,

-DM