My friend Erik from the post office was in Desert Storm. Yesterday, while I was talking with him, a boy came in to ask him a question about Selective Service papers. I say “a boy” because that’s all he was; a boy that’s starting his first year of college and hopes to have a bright future, but may not if the draft gets re-instated. I’ve heard that it’s highly unlikely, but I’ve also heard that if it gets re-instated it will probably include women this time. I know that I would never be sent to war due to my poor health, but it makes one think.

I know that a lot of soldiers are in this conflict because they were angry and wanted revenge for 9-11, but there are also a lot of soldiers over there that enlisted for the college money. My upstairs neighbor, Mike Martinez, is one of those. His wife just had a baby this past week, and if it hadn’t been for his mother’s digital camera and my patience uploading files, he wouldn’t have been able to see his daughter.

My own brothers both enlisted before this conflict ever started, as well as most of their friends, all with the intention of going to college. If my brother David hadn’t been injured, he would have been deployed; he was in Mortuary Affairs, an Army Reserves unit that was activated for “clean-up” at the Pentagon and has hardly been home since. My brother John (who will be 22 next week) just finished his 4 years of active duty in the Navy and is crossing his fingers not to be re-activated. Hector, one of our best friends, is a Sergeant now; he’s a computer technician, which means he’s generally safe, but he has to travel so often for training that even his wife hardly sees him anymore. He’s leaving again in 2 days for probably another 6 months of who-knows-what.

My point is that not everyone in this war wants to be in it. Nearly everyone doesn’t. We’re all really scared for each other right now. I know that those of us on the sidelines are physically safe, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t know how bad it is, how unfair, and how stupid.