Soldier and Psychopath

Soldiers are psychopaths. The act of traveling to a strange country and causing fatal bodily harm to people one barely knows must surely be madness. War is merely the process of building perfect little murderers enmasse. Yet war is the only form of diplomacy that really works. War is more than necessary. War is inevitable.

First Blood

My unit has drawn first blood today in Kuwait, we produced our first non-friendly casualty. Granted it was an innocent civilian who stumbled into a live-fire range but I caught myself wishing I was there so I could have treated my first gunshot wound. My motivation is curiosity. Does everything I have been taught work? If someone is bleeding from a wound will dressing the wound really help them? If someone is in shock and I initiate an IV will they be revived? Inquiring minds want to know. Mine does anyhow.

Come On

I can't escape the feeling that my life is on hold. The longer I stay in Kuwait, the more impatient I become. I saw an old buddy of mine from boot camp but we had nothing to say to each other. Beyond the momentary elation of recogniton, there was nothing.
I don't have any insights gained from living in the desert, no knowledge gained from constant introspection. The most productive thing I have started doing again is lifting weights. I am bored.

Can't Wait, I'm in Kuwait

That has to be the corniest post title I have ever used. I've been in Kuwait four days now and I think that the desert agrees with me. At least it does when the Army installs showers, air conditioned tents, dining facilites, an internet cafe, and a Subway. Life cannot be that hard when there's a Subway restaurant within walking distance. I won't even eat there, the only restaurant that could make me feel more at home though is a McDonald's.
I made the mistake of not bringing half of my laptop charger. So I am hamstrung. But it's ok.
One of the things that has been so surprising in Kuwait, is how "hajji" has so easily replaced "ottoshee". Foreigners in Korea called every Korean male "ottoshee" now in Kuwait and Iraq we have "hajji". I suppose that I'll stop liking "hajji" so much when he starts shooting at me. Time is money, in the internet cafe it's $5 an hour, so I am done and on to the next one.

soxblog

Here's hoping no one ever looks up my grades as an undergrad to decide whether I am intelligent or not.
soxblog

3 days out

Umm I am 3 days out of Iraq. I am at peace with going to war. (Irony if I ever saw it.) At the same time what do I say? Not a lot of turmoil or mixed emotions.

Democracy doesn't happen in conventions

I was reading electablog the just now and he commented on how going to the Democratic convention opened his eyes on how Democracy works.
I've got news for anybody who thinks political conventions are a part of the democratic process, they are clearly not any more. Maybe at one time nomination conventions were meant to chose a candidate for the national political parties but that time has passed. Candidates are chosen well before the actual convention and conventions merely rubber stamp the party's preferred candidate. Conventions are now an impediment to the democratic process because they provide the preferred candidate a chance to coopt his former primary opponents messages and silence any critics within the party thus squashing any serious dialogue.
What's worse is that conventions are vehicles of a two party system that excludes any and all others. We essentially have two state mandated political parties. Conventions aren't about democracy, Conventions are a tool of the political establishment to control the voting public. The entire thing is a giant sham.

Kerry Stinks

I've been back from the field and I have been able to catch up on my political reading and I wanted to say that John Kerry is a weak candidate. Despite the incredible ground swell of public outrage from the political left against President Bush, Kerry will be unable to connect with voters outside his own natural liberal constituency. Why? He stinks.
I've been pointing out that Kerry has run for president before and was defeated in the primaries. Kerry is a re-tread. He will fail because his stiff demeanor and speaking style will prevent him from convincing the American people that he is anything other than he is; and he is a canny, opportunistic, and very cautious political operator.
I just don't feel that John Kerry has the new ideas or the charisma to lead the country in a transformative era.
There are times I don't know if George Bush has the ability to lead the country, but what he has shown is the willingness to make incredibly unpopular decisions merely because he is convinced that he is right. This isn't a problem if Mr. Bush is always right. Let us pray that he is right more often.

AtomFilms - This Land

Don't get me wrong though. I plan to vote for the nut job myself.
AtomFilms - This Land

Terror in the Skies, Again? - WomensWallStreet

Absolutely positively chilling.
Terror in the Skies, Again? - WomensWallStreet

Slogging my way to Iraq

Training for the desert in Korea during the monsoon season has not been one of the most pleasant things I have ever done in life. Constant wear of my body armor has introduced me to an ailment known as "prickly heat". Salt, dirt, and assorted other things become lodged in the patient's pores and subject him to a maddening, burning, prickling sensation in the affected area. It sucks. You should see me do the "oh-my-God-what-is-that-itching-burning-sensation-all-over-my-back" dance.
I return to the field tomorrow morning with my line company to continue training in God knows where on the Korean peninsula. A nearly continuous month of training, spiced with unsubstantiated rumors of extra time in Iraq make Jack a very dull boy indeed.
I am out.

MSNBC - Iraqi group says it beheaded U.S. Marine

NO!
MSNBC - Iraqi group says it beheaded U.S. Marine

The world is my Urinal

The one thing about being in the field in the Army is that you get really thirsty. So you drink water. Then the inevitable consequence is that you must get rid of the water somehow and there are no bathrooms. What do you do? You go anywhere you feel like. There isn't anybody watching who might get offended and if there is, they shouldn't be watching.
I am back in the barracks (I don't use the word "home" because I have no home anymore) for the Fourth of July but I am leaving Monday morning. I better get while the getting is good. I can feel Iraq coming...
I have some funny stories to tell about being in the field but I don't want to give away any of tactics, it's actually a matter of security. We did have some craziness involving the platoon sergeant splattering a squad leader with glow-in-the-dark paint from a broken Chem-light. The inside of the building we were camped in looked like a low rent rave party. The BDU's even looked all right because apparently everyone is wearing camouflage to the club now.

Terrorist Henchmen have US Marine

MSNBC - Arab TV shows tape of purported U.S. hostage

Medical Tomfoolery

Never sleep around a medic. Never get so drunk that you are unconscious. Never agree to let the medic practice procedures on you that you have never heard of. Like inserting a nasogastric tube, inserting a nasogastric airway, or inserting a Foley catheter. Medics were probably the kids growing up who were always sticking pens in their noses or inhaling beans. Male medics have this urge to stuff tubes in every human orifice extant. We think it's funny. Look at us funny and you might end up with a catheter slimed with surgilube somewhere the sun doesn't shine.
Two medics offered themselves up as guinea pigs for medical procedures tonight. One agreed to have a nasogastric tube put in. A nasogastric tube is a tube that doctors use to clean out your stomach in a hospital or take a sample of stomach contents. Well medics like it because we get to shove a tube down somebody's nose. I have a video of this dude drinking Mountain Dew only to have a buddy of mine sucking it out of a tube in his nose as fast as he can drink it.
The other guy put in his own Foley catheter. That is to say he smeared iodine on his penis while wearing sterile gloves, put lubricant on a plastic tube and shoved the entire thing in his penis! At one point, he was in so much pain he was nearly in tears and we all just nearly died with laughter.
I have a video of him doing this to himself. I laugh so hard when I watch it that I have to make sure I go the bathroom first. Medics are fun.

Dick Cheney drops an F bomb on Pat Leahy

MSNBC - Cheney curses Leahy on Senate floor

Gene Expression: Homo Superior or how Science has discovered how to create your own race of mutant super men

Gene Expression: Homo Superior

Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore. By Christopher?Hitchens

Christopher Hitchen nails Michael Moore's cowardly movie.
Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore. By Christopher?Hitchens

Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears (washingtonpost.com)

Ouch! Things could have been so much better. Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears (washingtonpost.com)

Are we deployed yet?

I talked to someone who just spent 10 months in Iraq, which honestly could be almost anyone in the Army since Army brass is deploying everybody. He told me something interesting. Deploying is easy; predeployment is hell. I mean hell like living in jail with some dude named Bubba who's looking for a new "Mommy". I mean hell like living with your PMS'ed mother-in-law and her new boyfriend "Donny". I mean hell like finding out your wife cheated on you with your brother... And your best friend, and your cousin, and his friends, and...
It's unpleasant.
I did get off work early today so I decided to unwind by actually using my XBox for what it was designed for and playing some video games. So I played "Ninja Gaiden" and got my butt handed to me by assorted fictional characters whose only purpose is to hassle hapless gamers. Strangely enough, it was enjoyable, but I could only take so much failure.