a mobilized year

Thirty six hours. I went from the heat, the threat, and the violence of an Iraqi border town . . . to the cool morning dew, the calmness, and the passivity of American suburbia.

I went from overhearing conversations about the latest enemy contact and carnage that followed . . . to overhearing a “heated” discussion between a father and son about how far a bush in their yard should be trimmed.

I went from having an open tent living space of about 8 by 6 feet adjacent to similar open living spaces of five other guys . . . to having a large home with each family member having his or her own room and large common areas, a refrigerator, deck, fireplace, yard . . . .

I went from loading up equipment, putting on body armor, conducting hour long maintenance and pre-combat checks and inspections before leaving on a short mission in the local town . . . to looking five minutes for my car keys before hopping into my car to head off to Wal Mart.

I went from worrying about driving into an IED . . . to worrying about driving into an area under road construction.

I went from living in a heavily-regulated military environment that dictates what I can wear and how I can wear it and what I can say and who I can say it to (with someone, somewhere always monitoring) . . . to living in a permissive environment where it is not easy to get noticed (assuming one wanted to be noticed) by what one wears or what one says.

That’s right, I went home on leave recently. I had a great time. I spent quality time with my family, friends, co-workers, and yes, my tools, my paint cans and my paint brushes. It was very relaxing. I hadn’t been back since the beginning of June last year. Since then, I’ve come to better appreciate some of the things (and people) that I have taken for granted.

One of the things that I did not expect when I was home was that I had a strong feeling that the area was really insulated, and in some regards insular as well. The events of September 11 took away much of the “insulation” that people felt that we had prior; that is, that the World’s significant problems happened “elsewhere” and our ocean borders insulated us from much of the World’s extremism. We were insular in the sense that while we cared about many of the World problems, we only infrequently intervened or intervened only in a way that did not impact the day-to-day lives of American people. The exposure to violence and terrorism was for the movies or limited to big city crime or the occasional local spectacle. As the cliché goes, “things changed on September 11.”

Well, I think for many people, things have in large part now changed back to the pre-September 11 time. People are focused on their normal day-to-day lives and the pedestrian issues and priorities that we always have paid attention to. Take a look at what people are watching on TV. As many people voted in the latest American Idol competition as did in the most recent presidential election. How many people know the name of the Iraqi prime minister that was just selected as compared to the names of the American Idol competitors?

Don’t get me wrong, I think the American people sincerely care about the soldiers over here and want a peaceful solution in Iraq. They know men are dying over here. They are curious about “what it really is like in Iraq.” However, terrorism or the war doesn’t really impact the way most people live their lives back in the States. Heck, we haven’t even been asked to pay for the war over here (it’s been added to the national debt for a future generation to pay). I suppose it’s natural and it’s probably good to have that layer of insulation. I don’t want my children growing up in fear of terrorism or war. But, it’s a strange feeling to go from the two extreme environments.

(btw, Nouri al-Maliki is the Iraqi prime minister and he replaced the interim prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari last month).