been on my mind

a friend of mine in the Romanian army was deployed to Iraq a few days ago. since he's in the army, he has to go where they tell him to. and i was just thinking how kinda shite it is that he is going to be there for the next 6 months. lots of people in the States are now against the war, but the U.S. is committed and pretty much has to stay, until the situation over there is somewhat stable, given that it was the driving force behind the whole invasion. What gets me about Daniel's situation is that no one really supports it but apparently 5 years ago the Romanian government said they would send people - probably to curry favor with the US. its seems even more senseless that he is being taken away from his family and his life put in danger.

a few months ago at Daniels birthday party, i was talking to his friends - obviously many of his friends are in the military and talk shop. These guys are career military, are officers, (Romania did away with the one years mandatory military service this year) and had served their tour in Iraq. they were talking about the situation and stuff. one of the things that struck me then that i can remember (due to my massively faulty memory which i blame on my thyroid problem), one commented on how poorly some of the American soldiers were doing. he said that he felt so bad for some of them because they were really young people and they're thrown into this situation completely outside of their experience that they are totally unprepared for. they joined the army to pay for college and they wound up in the desert psychologically unprepared.

funnily enough, though i had thought about it and sorta gotten involved (in the UAE, i have my yr 9s run a charity and one class decided to send materials to a school in Iraq and we had an Iraqi speaker come and explain everyday peoples livesat this time) plus crazy inflation in the UAE since many Iraqi refugees came (but only the ones with money/connections to get out). it really struck me this time. He's leaving behind a pregnant wife and will miss the birth of his first child and i still wonder for what?

off the soap box - next post will be travel stuff.