Dispatches from Iraq 6
No big introduction today, I'll turn it right over to Matt -- Dave.
In just a few short days, God, or some higher power, or at the very least a lot of wind and water, wiped out a major United States city and much of the surrounding area.
I saw a quote today on MSNBC.com from someone named Yolando Sanders that read, "Any place is better than here. There are people dying over there."
In a way I think I can relate, sort of. I've had the same sentiments about my stint in Iraq at times.
But the truth is, I ultimately can't relate. I have a house to go back to after my year in the desert is done. I have a workplace, and my belongings. Although I've been in this rancid country for nearly a year, I've been able to retain my sense of "home," and it's that connection, that happy place, that brings me around when events over here begin to affect me. I still have my family and friends back home. In a few short days, that happy place, that sense of community, was taken away from hundreds of thousands of people.
Just like people all across the country have friends and acquaintances who have been affected by Katrina, so too do some of the soldiers deployed with me. One of my friends had his truck in Louisiana, and was lucky enough to have his family store it away where it wasn't affected by the torrent. My other buddy is planning on attending school down there after we return, and wonders what is going to happen to all the students who had just moved to the area to start their college year. He also wonders whether his school will be in session when he finally returns. Another friend had his entire family down there, and wasn't sure if they were safe for several days after the storm hit. Yet another soldier's whole family is from New Orleans' outlying areas, and didn't know whether they were safe until days after the storm hit.
My heart goes out to the victims of Katrina. The soldiers in Iraq have been through a lot, but I personally think what we've experienced is nothing compared to the life-altering events taking place in the Southeast right now. Catastrophes like the onslaught of Katrina puts things in perspective out in the desert. Every time we get hit by an IED, every time we hear about another soldier's death, and every time we find ourselves immersed in the squalor in which some of these Iraqi families have to survive, our relatively short-term plight doesn't seem so devastating. We're still alive. We're still going on with our lives. We're going home.
God Bless the victims of Katrina.
Matt
Somewhere in Iraq
04 September 2005
Dispatches from Iraq series links
posted by Dave Doyle @ 10:48 AM
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