i came, i saw, i conquered
happy new year.
listening to 'march to the witch's castle' on this funkadelic compilation i bought while i was off over the holidays -- the most compassionate musical statement on the vietnam vets that i'm aware of, which seems weird if all you know about george clinton is the freakiness and the wigginess. to me, it's the most soothing music on earth.
thinking about this kid that my sweetie kat sat next to on the flight back from seattle, and another one that my coworker phil sat next to on a flight from l.a.
the first kid was from burleson, coming home to see his mama before shipping out for iraq. when kat asked him, he said that no, he didn't reckon that rumsfeld et al. are doing such a great job of running the war. he'd just gotten a new tattoo on his arm that read 'veni, vidi, vici' and he was impressed when kat knew what that meant. he was scheduled to leave yesterday for mosul. i hope he makes it through.
the second kid was from new york and looked, phil said, 'like giovanni ribisi.' he'd just gotten out of the hospital and was on his way back to hawaii, where his unit is based. he'd been a tow gunner on a humvee that got hit by an rpg while escorting afghani election officials on their way to set up polling places. he'd been blown out of the vehicle; his driver was still in hospital. he told phil that he doesn't understand what we're doing in afghanistan, but that a lot of people have died there, and that if we don't stay and finish what we started, then those people will have died for nothing -- even though he realizes that staying to finish the job means that more people are going to die. the shit gets complicated sometimes.
listening to 'march to the witch's castle' on this funkadelic compilation i bought while i was off over the holidays -- the most compassionate musical statement on the vietnam vets that i'm aware of, which seems weird if all you know about george clinton is the freakiness and the wigginess. to me, it's the most soothing music on earth.
thinking about this kid that my sweetie kat sat next to on the flight back from seattle, and another one that my coworker phil sat next to on a flight from l.a.
the first kid was from burleson, coming home to see his mama before shipping out for iraq. when kat asked him, he said that no, he didn't reckon that rumsfeld et al. are doing such a great job of running the war. he'd just gotten a new tattoo on his arm that read 'veni, vidi, vici' and he was impressed when kat knew what that meant. he was scheduled to leave yesterday for mosul. i hope he makes it through.
the second kid was from new york and looked, phil said, 'like giovanni ribisi.' he'd just gotten out of the hospital and was on his way back to hawaii, where his unit is based. he'd been a tow gunner on a humvee that got hit by an rpg while escorting afghani election officials on their way to set up polling places. he'd been blown out of the vehicle; his driver was still in hospital. he told phil that he doesn't understand what we're doing in afghanistan, but that a lot of people have died there, and that if we don't stay and finish what we started, then those people will have died for nothing -- even though he realizes that staying to finish the job means that more people are going to die. the shit gets complicated sometimes.
posted by stashdauber at 3:43 AM
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