Eleven years have passed since the invasion of Iraq, or the War on Terror, or Operation Enduring Freedom, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Bush's Illegal War or W's Revenge Tour, or Imperialism, or Stomp out the Muslims, or Let's Steal All the Oil. These are just some of the names it has been called. I prefer to use the term my father used.. My step into history. I wasn't on the sidelines of this, I was in the game. This has caused me some issues since I got out and came home. Sometimes I was jealous that my friends were ahead of me in terms of relationships, careers, things they could afford. Other times I was angry when they'd say "We shouldn't be there!" But most of the time I really felt alone. They didn't get it, they don't get it and they never will get it. War isn't an abstract philosophy to me anymore. It is a very real, very scary event that people die in far away from home for reasons that may or may not be true.
Why do I bring this up? Unless you are living on a deserted island somewhere, then you should realize that the global machine is cranking up again. Russia is on the move, Israel and Palestine are at each other's throats, Iran is rattling its saber and Iraq and Afghanistan are as much a mess as they were 11 years ago and the rest of the world is just waiting to see what America will do. Politicians come and go and with them come conflicts that require sacrifice. But we keep sending the troops into harms way without properly equipping them to win the battle and return home. We keep saying we'll support them no matter what and then sit by as veterans die because the VA is a bogged down bureaucracy. The VFW was a dying organization 15 years ago, now it's ranks are swelling with angry disillusioned servicemen and women. The Marine Corps teaches us to improvise, adapt and overcome. It seems obvious that we are doing something wrong if we are about to go back to Iraq for the 3rd time since 1990; we can't take care of our veterans; the rest of the world wants to be like us and not listen to us.
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