The last time I checked, and it was a while ago. There had been over one million soldiers in and out of Iraq. I was just one of them. It was a great time in my life, and I would never take it back. But along with being a great time it was also a time of immense personal growth.
You see, in my younger days I was very much a romantic idealist. I believed in God and country, I believed in just causes, I believed the media at their word, and I believed that we could trust those we elected to always do what was right for our country. I was right about the first two.
To this day I can hold my head up high and honestly say that we did great things in Iraq. We introduced Iraqis to true religious freedom. And I was there to protect their first mass pilgrimage in over 30 years. We built schools. And I was there to make sure even little girls got an education. We unclogged the sewage systems while under enemy fire. And I was there to see clean drinking water for an entire city. We built and supported hospitals. And I was there to see the poorest receive competent medical attention. We provided hope for an entire country that needed hope so badly. I know this to be true because I worked and interacted with the general population.
I wish this were the end of my story. If this was the end it would be a great story indeed. But all things are not meant to be entirely uplifting, at least not at first. What I did not know was that while we were doing these great and commendable things, our country and way of life was slipping away. It was being destroyed from within by those in our government and of the media.
While we were protecting hundreds of thousands of Muslims who for the first time in their life could freely partake in their religious pilgrimage. Our media was telling the American people about the innocent people we killed. I for one am sure of at least one time when they lied about such things. But why would our media want to lie to us?
While we were building schools in Iraq. Back home our politicians were enacting programs like No Child Left Behind. So we could better teach our children how to take tests, follow instructions and embrace the collective over personal desires by stifling their creativity and crushing their competitive spirits. But why would we ever want anything other than the best education for our children.
While we were providing clean drinking water for those who needed it so badly. Our infrastructure back home was fall apart. There is nothing more sobering than seeing what borrowing money to pay for a war has done to places like Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. I went there to see it firsthand. But why would our government want to let our infrastructure age prematurely because of a lack of maintenance?
While we were building hospitals, and providing affordable medical care for all Iraqis in need. Our government and media were telling our people that the only way to have medical care for everyone was to make sure everyone is insured. I know this to be a lie because the cost of insurance far outweighs the cost of care. Just ask one of the growing number of clinics in the U.S. that have stopped accepting all types of insurance and in doing so can now charge as little as $25.00 per visit. If you have medical insurance you know that is equal to the average deductible. But why the push for getting everyone insured if it just adds to the cost of medical care?
While we were providing hope to people half way around the world. Our politicians were conspiring against our soldiers by constantly changing the rules of engagement and by making an otherwise simple battle plan overly complex to the point of recklessness. But why would our politicians want to endanger the lives of our soldiers.
At the end of each of the last five short paragraphs I have asked a question. The basic question has been why. But I want you to forget the question. The question no longer matters. The questions have all been washed out and laundered by the well intended but gullible truth seekers and conspiracy theorists. Only answers matter to us now. And only our personal actions can ensure our freedoms tomorrow will mirror what we think they should be today. But what are the answers?
The answers will be a bit of hard medicine for some, and there is no sugar to make it go down easy. But they are something we all need to live with and enact in our own lives on a daily basis in order to preserve our future as we hope it to be. The answers are simple, profound and enduring. But the answers are also easy to forget when time permits. The answers to all these questions and so many more lie in each one of us personally.
I will end this today by telling you something about those million or so soldiers I mentions in the first paragraph. I can only account for those who I personally served with. But I truly believe they are a good representation of the whole. Of those with whom I served, 60 percent are now small business owners and entrepreneurs, 40 percent of us are highly politically active, and better than 80 percent of us have gone on to higher education. But there is one statistic almost all of us have in common. We are all too some degree disenchanted with and by the very system we once found pride in fighting wars for.
What the politicians and the media never counted on is what will set us all free. You can tell a country that their soldiers are fighting for freedom only so long before they start realizing that in their haze of patriotism freedom has taken on a lesser meaning. But rest assured that our soldiers are still fighting for our freedoms. We’re just a whole lot more cautious as to who is benefiting from our toils.
Please feel free to comment on this and any other post on this blog as you see fit. I am at this time especially interested in knowing how you have better fit self reliance, political awareness and personal freedom in your own life.
