War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

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10-Apr-03 8:04 PM

Just got done having a very deep conversation with Patterson and Andersen (they did most of the talking, I just listened). I admit I like talking to people about their beliefs, it’s easy to go too far and end up having arguments, but when the people you’re talking to are fairly intelligent it’s easier to avoid letting things go too far (although Patterson seemed to be very into proving that what he believed was right).

I think that a lot of philosophical thought occurs during war; a lot more than most people think. Everybody’s here with plenty of time to think to themselves and they’re in a situation where they question their own existence, because there the possibility (however small) that they may not exist much longer. There could be some great philosophers coming out of war, and anybody who thinks they know everything could do well to be in a situation like this because it makes you question your beliefs or it makes you see them in a different light.

It was really interesting to listen to SSgt Andersen describe why he believes in the Mormon faith and what his thoughts of the existence of god and creation are. He’s one of the Mormons that I really like because their ideals are pretty much the same as mine and their not too close minded to question and ponder their faith. He reminds me of the same type of Mormon that Robert Kirby is, people like Kirby and Andersen make me believe more about the church than most Mormon bishops and presidents do. I guess it all comes down to my own ideals; what religion you call yourself doesn’t matter, it’s your actions that define whether you’re good or evil. Andersen would see the logic in that where as many Mormons think that if they are Mormon and they despise all that aren’t they are still better just because they go to church every Sunday.

Patterson didn’t go too much into his beliefs too much he just questioned Andersen on his beliefs and how he couldn’t conceive of a god. But some of his ideas seemed to contradict themselves to me. And a lot of his beliefs were based off of one principal of different philosophers; it reminded me of people who read the abridged version of a book and discuss one part of the book based off a simple statement like “time is relative”. They can understand the definition of each individual word and what that means together without knowing the meaning behind the words. He used the phrase from Descartes that “I think for I am” and how that related to the movie “The Matrix” but I don’t think he knew just how deep that phrase went.

I like having in-depth discussions like that because of what I learn from the people talking, sometimes I learn facts I didn’t know sometimes I just learn about people and what they think. It’d be nice to grill Patterson on his beliefs because I think he has a lot of the same beliefs that Andersen has just in different ways and directed at different things.

Today in Americaland the weather was great, last night was so perfect I slept like a baby all night, and the day never got too hot, the only time I felt a little sweaty was between 1:30 and 3:30 PM, and I spent that time in the MWR Room so I was cool all night. Right now is probably the hottest I’ve been all day because the I’m in the C&E Van and I have to keep the vents closed so that no white light gets out (I don’t want Slocum coming by and bitching because he can see slightly more light than a cigarette coming out of here). The news about going home is all but gone now and the news about going to Doha is iffy, we still may be going forward. But I still wish I was headed home soon, it’s hard to tell how much longer we’ll be here without knowing what's going on in the rest of the country. The way I’ve always seen it is that they’ll keep us here as long as the war keeps going, as soon as the war ends we’ll probably spend two weeks to a month staying here to fix vehicles damaged in the war then once they didn’t need us anymore we’d go home. I don’t know how they could keep us busy for the 12 months original orders, unless the war drags out for the next 6 months.

But here I don’t have much to do so I keep thinking (and philosophizing) and wish I was home. Tonight I’m listening to DoCo for the first time since we were in Arifjan; it reminds me of watching Japanimation with my sister late into the night back home. We’d sit up watching Ranma ½ or whatever animation she had rented from the Library. I still remember one night about a week before I left we went to see “Spirited Away” at the Tower Theater because we had noticed the poster for it when I had driven her up there to rent movies. I’d be really happy to stay up all night watching those dumb Ranma episodes with her right now. It seems like me and her are the only ones that get it even thought we don’t even know what they mean. Plus I’ve been looking at pictures on my laptop of the Xterra events I’ve been too. I really miss not being able to go spend time with those guys down in Moab this year for Easter Jeep Safari. For GOX it’s really nice to see Colorado and the San Juans but this is my chance to showoff Utah's beauty to everybody, I like sharing that place with people I trust to enjoy it. But I guess the plus side of not being there is that I don’t have to watch other people abuse Moab. EJS is getting to many “yahoos” as my dad would call them. The high school and college kids who think it’s fun to go there and get piss drunk then go egg their friends to do stupid things to their vehicles (and the environment in the process).

As much I know there will be good things I’ll take home from this deployment I know that I’m ready to go home NOW. SSgt Andersen said that he’d rather go to Baghdad if given the choice between Doha and Baghdad but even if they plan on keeping us in camp Doha to do some work it seem like a step in the right direction to me. It’d be a lot easier to pack up and leave from Doha than it would be from the heart of Iraq.