Singing the Sky

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So whoopee, the Democratic Congress is here. I don’t know that I am all that excited. From where I sit, it doesn’t look like it is going to affect the course of the war much at all. They are talking about affordable prescription drugs and other nice things, but it is the war that I am concerned about. It has finally really hit home.

One option presented to Bush calls for an initial infusion of 8,000 to 9,000 troops, mainly to reinforce Baghdad. The option involves sending two additional Army brigades, or roughly 7,000 soldiers, to Baghdad, and two Marine battalions, totaling about 1,500 troops, to western Anbar Province, the center of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

One reservist I work with had high hopes that things would change with this Congress. He is the person who told me that painted all over the bunkers there is the word OIL, an acronym for Operation Iraqi Liberation, but an unfunny joke at the same time. But it doesn’t appear that this may happen, as even some Democrats are calling for more troops. My friend tells me that disappointment is high among the enlisted folks he knows. This particular guy, one of the more compassionate folks I work with, just got back from Baghdad in August and went to work at my school a week later. He has degrees in math and physics and is desperately needed. I have met his wife, who is an facinating person. They have a little boy who is two years old.

He announced today that they had asked him to volunteer for another tour of duty. He refused to volunteer. However, he is going to meet with them this weekend and he thinks they will send him anyway. He says that his wife refuses to discuss it with him. We talked about marriage. He told me that every single married guy he personally knows that he has served with has arrived home to a broken family and sometimes vicious custody battles. He says that it is not discussed in the media–the wear and tear on families that this war has taken. I really, really hope he doesn’t go. I like him very much, and I will feel afraid for him and his family.

He told me about the mindf*** (although he didn’t use that word) that it is to not know who the enemy is. He described being served food by an Iraqi who he saw being put in a body bag the following day because the man was an infiltrator who had then attacked. He also feels for the Iraqi people. He just doesn’t know which of these people will try to kill him. My collegue has not bought into the lie of this war. He doesn’t want to go. He doesn’t see any other choice.

A friend came over the other day. Her brother is in Baghdad. He is scheduled to return home at the end of February. I asked her why he went. She described his marriage to a woman who was turned out to be pregnant with a baby who was not his child, the divorce, the dual jobs at a manufacturing plant and Walmart, the despair. I said, “So he signed up because he felt that his life sucked?” She nodded. She had tears in her eyes and I shut up and we talked about other things.

At church, a mother got up and asked us to pray for her son who had just seen his friend blown up two days prior. She was crying, crying, crying. She didn’t say any of the usual things that people used to say at the beginning of this war, like, “I know he is fighting for our freedom”. The lack of such phrases and her tears said so much. She is not the only person at church who has someone in Iraq. No one from church is saying gung ho things about freedom anymore. I no longer see so many of the yellow sticker ribbons on cars.

It is all around, this pain. No one is in agreement, yet we continue to comply. And sending more troops is a possibility? Oh, lets get real. God help us.

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