I'm writing this from a computer at the USO in the airport. In a few hours, I'll be at Ft. Jackson, SC processing in to start learning to be a Chaplain's Assistant.
The price I have to pay for this is missing out on my kids' summer vacation, for about 6 weeks. I have seen nearly every day of their lives. My wife went away for a week last year so I could fix part of the house. For Warrior Transition, I missed the month of June this year, one month my baby girl's life. Doesn't sound like much but it's one of only 24 she's had. Her vocabulary, conversational skills and enunciation all noticeably improved in that month. Now I spend another month and a half away. What do I get for my spending?
Americans take a lot for granted, things that we can include in the definition of "freedom" we enjoy. We are free to drive oversized cars unnecessary distances to go see a movie. We're free to get fat eating Big Macs. We're free to get our teeth cleaned twice a year. We're free to watch terrible TV, and we're free not to. We're free to own homes. We're free to buy vegetables without Toyotas exploding next to us. We're free to go about our lives unarmed.
The price we pay is steep. We pay taxes to have roads. We have expensive health care. We have police. We can't navigate society (especially out here in the sprawled-out West) without a car. Most of our clever gadgets are made overseas, and a lot of jobs here are being taken by immigrants from Mexico. Immigrants, just like our ancestors from Ireland, England, Italy, Germany . . . people who left somewhere crappy to go somewhere better. And it is better here. It's great. Honestly, look around your life and ask "what do I have to bitch about?"
So. Does Iraq threaten our freedom? Hardly - it's too busy effing up itself. What about "al Qaeda in Iraq?" They're too busy stirring up a hornet's nest for their own ends.
Here I sit, a recently enlisted American Soldier. How am I paying for our freedom? By being part of the system that protects us from all threats, including bad Presidents. If I get sent to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, I go, even if I think it's a bad idea. I don't have the freedom to not go - I've spent that freedom to protect the other freedoms. I have the freedom to disagree, to vote for someone else to be my Commander in Chief, to elect other congressmen, or even to run for office myself.
Part of the Soldier's Creed reads "I serve the American People. . ." I serve the fat SUV driver in front of me in the Wendy's Drive-thru. I'm here to protect her from anything that threatens her Paradigm of Convenience. I'm here to protect her obliviousness to the cost of freedom, her ability to take these things for granted.
It's not about this war, or the next one or the last one. It's about the need of a Nation to be armed and strong, so that her citizens can be fat and comfortable, and live free from fear.
