I spend a lot of time bitching on this blog. I don’t really regret it, because I’m generally bitching for a reason – I hope to find others out there in the big bad world who feel similar to the way I feel, or who might change their minds and come around to my way of thinking on issues that matter.
As a former participant in the occupation of Iraq, I have very mixed feelings on that particular political morass. I think we have noble intentions and are generally doing things the hardest and most expensive way possible over there. Perhaps that is the only way to go about waging a war that really intends to change a culture. I’m not an expert, just a guy who went and came back.
The war in Iraq is so muddled and mischarecterized. Sometimes, even the people waging it have no idea what they are doing, where they are going and why they have to be there. It’s easy to lose your humanity in an environment where every moment might be your last moment.
That is why I am also touched to read stories like this one:
Ammar Haddad Muhammad, a 5-year-old Iraqi boy, and his father landed on time Saturday night in Charleston, S.C., to begin the process of getting life-saving surgery thanks to help from a Gainesville Marine.
There are certain things that I hold dear and honor when I see them. War can make us so tired. It certainly did in my case. Marine Major Kevin Jarrard, no matter his other human qualities, should be held up as an example of the kind of men we need when we wage war. In the midst of strife and conflict, he has twice reached out to remind Iraqis that they are just as human as we are and that we value their lives because we value all human life on general principle.