War...what is it good for.....

Try and read that title without the grunt between “war” and “what”. **GRIN**

Last Friday, I went to lunch with some friends from work. As we drove to the restaurant, one of my workers travelled with me. He looked down and saw a small metal model of a tank; a pencil sharpener, actually. He picked it up and identified it, immediately, as a Patton tank. (M48 for those who are interested in that kind of thing.) He’s Israeli, and little did I know that he served in the Israeli-Lebanon war in the early 1980s….as a tank driver. The rush of memories that overcame him when he saw the pencil sharpener was incredible.

We talked.

I had the tank in my car because I simply hadn’t taken it out. It was my grandfather’s. He drove a tank in Italy in WWII for the Canadian military. His was a Sherman tank, not a Patton, but my aunt has his Sherman model. Grandpa meant a lot to me, and his tales of “The War” were common conversation points. When he died, one of the things he left to me was a copy of the war memoirs of his regiment. Pages after pages of pictures, names, and handwritten notes had me in tears. One, I miss him so much. Two, he had pictures, with faces circled, and comments like, “The first friend I saw die in combat.”

My wife’s uncle was killed in Vietnam. (My father-in-law’s little brother.)

I have friends who are Army Rangers, and have either served in Iraq or are serving. I know others who are just soldiers, but equally important.

I have worked in my career on projects for the U.S. military machine. (One of which I am extremely proud of. Why? It allows the Army to easily determine the location of ANY individual solider in the field within a 3 day period. This may not seem like much, but it’s better than anything they’ve ever had before. It all came about when a U.S. Senator wanted to send a note to all of the troops from his district, and the Army said, “We have no way of knowing where they are.” I am extremely proud that I helped make it possible for families and society to reconnect to individual troops.)

My college roommate is in Iraq right now -- in Baghdad. His wife is left in Maryland to care for their two children, one of whom is borderline Asperger’s syndrome…a form of autism. He’s going to be gone for a year. When he called me at 9:30pm Pacific from an airport in Maine on his way out, I was nearly in tears. He’s almost 40 and is going back to a war zone.

Another college buddy is a helicopter pilot in the Navy.

Another is a pilot in the Marines.

I don’t normally let me feelings be known, but I’ll say it now. I’m not for these stupid wars...Iraq, Afghanistan.

Preemptive strikes are not the right way to solve the problem.

In fact, I don't think there's a human way to solve the problems in the Middle East.

I do know this. I don't care who the politicians are that are in power. I cannot condone war.

Don't get me wrong, I fully support our troops, and will honor them for their service when they return.

I get tired of Christians who are more up in arms over abortion, but turn a blind eye to the murder being done in the name of our beloved country.

Both things break my heart.

I hate war.