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Here's one for the "Support our troops" crowd.
I had a surprise visit over the weekend. A cousin of mine in the Army, a single mother who was shipped off to Iraq in October, returned to the states last week and was visiting Columbus this weekend along with her 4-year-old son. She was sent home due to an unfortunate incident that happened to her over there a month ago, involving a drunk comrade and a breach of trust (as well as the disadvantages of being one of the two women in a group of over 500 soldiers), but she's fine, and happy to be back home with her son.
She talked a bit about what it was like over there though -- pretty bad. Her unit lost a few people, and most units lost more. She narrowly missed getting killed in a convoy attack. She saw horrible sights, many of which she didn't want to talk about. And worse, she doesn't understand why she and the rest were over there. "OK, great, we got Saddam, we should have left right after that," she said. "There was no reason for us to be over there."
She said when she returned (wearing her uniform) people would stop her and say "Thank you!" She was nearly at a loss for how to respond. (She decided the easiest response was just to say "You're welcome.") But she didn't see any reason to be thanked. "We didn't choose to go there. We didn't want to go there. We went because it's our job to go where we're told to go."
Before talking to her, I'd been slightly apprehensive about whether she'd agree with me that the Iraq war was a bad idea, and I was relieved to find out that she did. (Knowing her, I probably shouldn't have been worried; besides, when her father retired from the Navy he said "they finally let the only Democrat out of the Navy," and she's a lot like her father.) One thing was somewhat disappointing though completely understandable -- after saying that they shouldn't have been there, she said now that she's back she doesn't even want to deal with politics at all. (She just wants to spend time with her son.) I'm guessing that means she doesn't want to deal with the Bush-Kerry race; at least she makes her home in the safe Dem state of New York, though her sister is in the swing state of Pennsylvania and could cast a significant vote.
I had a surprise visit over the weekend. A cousin of mine in the Army, a single mother who was shipped off to Iraq in October, returned to the states last week and was visiting Columbus this weekend along with her 4-year-old son. She was sent home due to an unfortunate incident that happened to her over there a month ago, involving a drunk comrade and a breach of trust (as well as the disadvantages of being one of the two women in a group of over 500 soldiers), but she's fine, and happy to be back home with her son.
She talked a bit about what it was like over there though -- pretty bad. Her unit lost a few people, and most units lost more. She narrowly missed getting killed in a convoy attack. She saw horrible sights, many of which she didn't want to talk about. And worse, she doesn't understand why she and the rest were over there. "OK, great, we got Saddam, we should have left right after that," she said. "There was no reason for us to be over there."
She said when she returned (wearing her uniform) people would stop her and say "Thank you!" She was nearly at a loss for how to respond. (She decided the easiest response was just to say "You're welcome.") But she didn't see any reason to be thanked. "We didn't choose to go there. We didn't want to go there. We went because it's our job to go where we're told to go."
Before talking to her, I'd been slightly apprehensive about whether she'd agree with me that the Iraq war was a bad idea, and I was relieved to find out that she did. (Knowing her, I probably shouldn't have been worried; besides, when her father retired from the Navy he said "they finally let the only Democrat out of the Navy," and she's a lot like her father.) One thing was somewhat disappointing though completely understandable -- after saying that they shouldn't have been there, she said now that she's back she doesn't even want to deal with politics at all. (She just wants to spend time with her son.) I'm guessing that means she doesn't want to deal with the Bush-Kerry race; at least she makes her home in the safe Dem state of New York, though her sister is in the swing state of Pennsylvania and could cast a significant vote.