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[gnomi]

I just found out tonight that the husband of a former roommate of mine is being deployed soon to Iraq. He's in the Naval Reserve, he's married, and he's got twin girls who are a little less than a year and a half old. And... I don't know. I'm just faced with this overwhelming feeling of wrongness.

There are many, many reasons I don't get political here. And this is not a political reaction on my part. This has nothing to do with the overarching issues of the war, the reasons we're in Iraq, any of that. It's just this feeling, this ache I have for his wife, a woman I've known since I was a freshman in college, the woman who was responsible (with her then-not-boyfriend, now-husband) for me meeting mabfan.

And he'll go, because he's a man of honor, a man of duty. He enlisted after September 11th, knowing a day may come that he'd have to go.

And all I can wish him is tzaitchem b'shalom go in peace -- u'voachem l'shalom -- and return in peace.

and I know this is confused and disjointed. And for that I apologize.

Comments

[celli]

*hugs*

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Last time I was visiting my parents, we were watching the news, and a yay-the-troops fluff piece came on: a soldier had just returned home, and he surprised his son in kindergarten class. The son had gotten the whole class to send his dad's unit letters. The TV crew was of course on hand to film the whole thing. The son could hardly believe it, he cried hysterically and everyone had their touching moment.

Mom and I were both pissed off at this. I was irate that anyone would ambush their kid like that, and on camera to boot. Even small children deserve privacy for that kind of emotional response.

Mom was pissed off at the soldier for going to war when he had a small child. It was just wrong, she felt. It was a gut reaction, and hardly a considered response; questions like "so nobody should go career if they have kids?" or "that might have been the best way, financially, to care for his family" were not on the radar. She simply felt intense anger on behalf of the kid whose father had abandoned him for so long (and potentially forever).

How can it be right for a good man to leave his wife and children and walk into a war zone? But if we must have a military that fights wars, how can we refuse good men their choice to serve? And, policywise, would we want a military made only of people who could not look into the eyes of a foreign child and see their own son or daughter?

It's just another personal grief in an endlessly long line of such griefs and tragedies. All we can do is light the candle, pray, and help each other carry on. You know, babysit the kids, knit duck hats for his unit, etc...

*hug*

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

oh man, i hope he's ok out there.... *hugs*

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

You'll be in my thoughts. He'll be in my thoughts. Oy.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Oy... hope he'll be OK.

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Hugs

I have nothing good to say, largely because there is nothing good to say in the face of such insanity. We will be here for you and for her, and we will do what we have always done. Such is the way of things.

Which doesn't make it any better, but at least we are not alone.

[madfilkentist]

Best hopes for his safe return.

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

As I said in Mab's post, may he come home safe and whole, and I'm sending good thought's his wife's way, too.

[eal.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Best wishes to him for a safe and uneventful deployment.

[epj.livejournal.com]

I will keep him and his family in my prayers. It is terribly sad.

Me too

[(Anonymous)]

One of my cousins goes over later this summer and I am feeling just like you say. Thank you for sharing the Hebrew, because the new sounds and the old words made me feel better.

Mary
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