This morning I learned that my cousin’s husband will be heading to Afganistan for 6 months of military service. I really hope his time there will be uneventful, and that his role will be confined to peacekeeping, rather than any combat. He’s been in the military for a long time but has been lucky enough to have never been sent into active duty. His wife and 3 kids must surely be quite nervous and scared by this occurance, but our military is one of the best trained in all the world, so I do believe he’ll be relatively safe. I pray he won’t have to kill anyone, for that would be quite terrible.
I’ve been missing Ashley a tremendous amount lately… She’s been visiting relatives for over a week now and we’ve only talked a little in those 10 days… Long periods of time like this compound the usual loneliness I ususually feel during the times we are unable to talk, and has certainly lead to a noticable decline in my spirt…
Hardship and nostalgia in Iraq lead to nostalgia for Saddam
A bizarre Saddam Hussein nostalgia has gripped some people. What they say is that if you did not want to threaten the regime, it would leave you alone. In return it delivered safe streets.
The fact that Saddam Hussein has been removed is no longer enough for most Iraqis. They do not like being occupied, especially when the occupation has not made their lives better.
I truly feel terrible for the Iraqis… they have lost so much and continue to lose their way of life. Women and children are scared, the former likely to lose many of their rights under this new “democracy”. We must work diligently to make sure this happens to no other nations, and that we free the Iraqis from occupation as soon as possible.