10 Minutes...

For those of you who read what's going on in the news over here in Iraq probably read about the double car bomb that went off at the IP station right outside one of the checkpoints for the Green Zone. My platoon and I had only left that checkpoint 10 minutes earlier. Amazing how the difference of just 10 minutes decides whether I'm writing this post to you or going home in a body bag. It is a quite sobering thought and I know that I don't usually post things of this degree of seriousness but I thought it was something important to put out. There are many of us over here, roughly 140,000 troops all risking their lives on a daily basis. I try as best I can to keep up with what the news media chooses to put out and I feel that this message is seriously lacking. There are many good people who have chosen to come here and work to make Iraq a better place. We are succeeding. I see that every day and yet all that is put out is how many people die in what bombing/explosion/assassination. I can't speak for my fellow soldiers but I know that if I had known that I would be coming here, to Iraq, to do this in 2000, the day I signed on the dotted line and entered the military, I would do it again. Even the most cynical of my fellow LTs said to me the other day that he gets this feeling of purpose, of being a part of something bigger than himself that he will, never again participate in as long as he lives. That is the prevailing feeling over here. We know we are here to do good and good is being done. I urge those of you who read/watch what's going on here in Iraq to view that news through a filter. Understand that what is published is only the good, juicy, sensational stuff, not the "mundane" hard tiring work that is going into making this country strong enough to stand on its own. I'm going to step off my soap box now. Thanks for understanding and for all the support that pours in for the soldiers over here. It means more than you will ever know. B