This week was another busy one at work for both of us. Maria continues to work nights and odd hours getting the cable planet ready for telephony and more capacity for EOD. I spent the week interviewing for open positions and trying to determine how many people we’ll need next and how to justify them. Fun stuff.
We got a couple of free tickets for the Las Vegas Wranglers hockey game on Friday. We were both impressed with the team. They handled the puck well and they played good defense. I didn’t see them get out of position very often. They won the game and we had a good time. We may need to go a few more times this season.
Other than the hockey game, and a few calls from work, this has been a quiet weekend. I’ve spent some time working on my web site, and I’ll spend some working. I got to talk to my sister and my father too.
Debbie is worried about Tyler of course. We talked a little about that. It’s rough for me to hear that a Marine dies every day, and I know it’s very hard on her. We both talked about the conflicting emotions we experience when we hear the latest causality reports. We worry a bit, but we know that some family is going to get terrible news that will affect the rest of their lives. We just hope it isn’t us. It sure brings the reality of the war home when you have a loved one over there. I just hope the Iraqis will be able to take care of themselves soon.
There is one thing I’d like to say about the war and the events in the news this week. For the life of me, I cannot understand how politicians can say that people who have complaints about the war are disloyal. I think any reasonable person should complain about the war. Anyone can see it’s not going as well as it could or should, and to say so isn’t disloyal. Personally, I haven’t heard anyone publicly say that we should leave now. They are simply saying the reasons we were told that we needed to go to war weren’t accurate and that it’s taking longer and going worse than originally expected. What’s disloyal about that?
For what it’s worth, I think we have to stick it out, but I’d like to see us make a concerted, honest effort at winning this thing as quickly as possible. I think this story will explain what I mean. I saw a bit on CNN where the reporters were with an Army convoy. They came upon a car sitting on the side of the road. The Army sergeant suspected it may be booby-trapped and had a soldier go up to the car to inspect it. At that point I hit the roof. Get a tank up there and blow it up or push it out of harm’s way. Why in the hell is a solider going up to the car to look? The car didn’t explode, so the sergeant had a “specialized Humvee” push it off to the side of the road. There were four soldiers in the Humvee – why? At this point the car blew up. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, but the “specialized Humvee” was destroyed and the guys had to scramble to offload munitions from their vehicle before they exploded.
What does this story say about the situation over there? First, these guys aren’t trained properly. Second, they don’t have the proper equipment. Third, the government and the military aren’t doing the best they can to win this war. If we send people off to fight, we need to give them everything we can to make sure we win and win fast.
Getting the electricity on and money coming in from the oil industry would help. We don’t have enough people over there to make that happen though, and if we continue to let politics decide our troop levels, we never will. If we stay, and I think we have to, then let’s do it right and get it over with. If we didn’t care what other countries said before we went to war, then why care what they think if we increase the troop levels so we can get people back to work? Think that doesn’t matter? Look how frustrated people were / are in our gulf coast area. They’ve been dealing with unemployment, no services, and homelessness for a few months. The people in Iraq have been dealing with it for more than two years.
Nobody wants to hear that we need more troops over there, but that’s the truth. Churchill could have lied to the Brits at the beginning of the war, but he told them the truth, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Mr. Bush, if we are in a real global war against terror, then tell us the truth about the expected cost in Iraq. After that, get our troops everything they need and let them win this thing.
End of rant, and I promise not to write about politics very often.
