An Excerpt From the Journal of Cody Badger
I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've just been waiting for something good to happen to tell you about. It doesn't seem anything else good is going to happen in Iraq ever so I might as well post now. The one good thing is the timeline to leave Iraq looks to be the same. I will be home for the holidays this year.
Here's an entry I found the other day from the journal of my friend Cody Badger. I'm not sure when it was written because it wasn't dated.
Morale is at an all time low here right now. You'd think with the anticipation of going home everyone would be excited, but you'd be wrong. I never really thought about this until very recently, but as long as you didn't know when you were going home you had un unquantifiable amount of time to see if anything we were doing here would make any difference whatsoever. Granted I'm in a "Can't see the forest for the trees" point of view right now, but I've seen little to prove we've done any lasting good. We did liberate the country from Saddam, which is a good thing, but liberated into what? That remains to be seen. Living day in and day out with the Iraqi people, interacting with them much more than I interact with the Americans here has shown me a small glimmer of the hopelessness and despair that is Iraq regardless of who's leading it. The saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" isn't quite accurate. You can teach him all the new tricks you want. He may even do a few of them once or twice as long as you're standing right there watching him. But the minute you stop watching him he's going to do whatever the heck he wants to do no matter the consequence. And, as long as you don't set guidelines or enforce a certain standard all your doing is wasting time, or lives, to condone whatever the dog wants to do. You're just saying, "It's OK to do things anyway you want no matter the outcome because I'm here to justify you're decisions and shield you from any consequences." "If the other puppies don't see things your way it's OK to kill them or put them in prison or torture them, as long as it works out well for you go ahead, we'll even look the other way. Heck, well even pat you on the back and tell you good job. Why? Because it would be way to hard to make a system where all the different animals can get along. Let's just let the ones who can manipulate the power the best be the ones that get to write the next section of the history books. If there's anything we've taught anyone it's that the more power you have the more right you must be.
Good old Cody, he never sugar coats anything.
In some positive news I saved a ton on car insurance.
Here's an entry I found the other day from the journal of my friend Cody Badger. I'm not sure when it was written because it wasn't dated.
Morale is at an all time low here right now. You'd think with the anticipation of going home everyone would be excited, but you'd be wrong. I never really thought about this until very recently, but as long as you didn't know when you were going home you had un unquantifiable amount of time to see if anything we were doing here would make any difference whatsoever. Granted I'm in a "Can't see the forest for the trees" point of view right now, but I've seen little to prove we've done any lasting good. We did liberate the country from Saddam, which is a good thing, but liberated into what? That remains to be seen. Living day in and day out with the Iraqi people, interacting with them much more than I interact with the Americans here has shown me a small glimmer of the hopelessness and despair that is Iraq regardless of who's leading it. The saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" isn't quite accurate. You can teach him all the new tricks you want. He may even do a few of them once or twice as long as you're standing right there watching him. But the minute you stop watching him he's going to do whatever the heck he wants to do no matter the consequence. And, as long as you don't set guidelines or enforce a certain standard all your doing is wasting time, or lives, to condone whatever the dog wants to do. You're just saying, "It's OK to do things anyway you want no matter the outcome because I'm here to justify you're decisions and shield you from any consequences." "If the other puppies don't see things your way it's OK to kill them or put them in prison or torture them, as long as it works out well for you go ahead, we'll even look the other way. Heck, well even pat you on the back and tell you good job. Why? Because it would be way to hard to make a system where all the different animals can get along. Let's just let the ones who can manipulate the power the best be the ones that get to write the next section of the history books. If there's anything we've taught anyone it's that the more power you have the more right you must be.
Good old Cody, he never sugar coats anything.
In some positive news I saved a ton on car insurance.
posted by GWM at 3:50 AM
4 Comments:
It's been about a year since you walked into your home after a long day at work and opened up the fateful piece of mail that drastically changed your life - at least temporarily.
In a lifetime, a year is such a short period, but for you and the many you left behind, a year seems like an eternity.
You are now allowing yourself to start thinking about going back to your "real" life.
No one with a good heart, strong conscience, and reasonable IQ could refrain from asking himself questions like "What am I doing here? Have I made a difference, or made things worse? Did the separation from my family really serve a purpose? Was any of this worth it?"
When you return to your real life - your home, your house of worship, your family rituals like tucking the children in bed at night - you will remember what you have witnessed and experienced this past year. The memories of what you've seen and learned will contast with your many blessings. You know you are blessed to have such a family and the opportunity to raise them in a free society - to know that they have so many wonderful life experiences ahead of them.
Regardless of what you leave behind when you turn in that uniform for the last time, remain proud of what you've done. Be proud that you made the commitment to try to make a difference. Your presence in that country this past year has made a difference to someone - even if you don't know it. Neeny
Neeny's right. Your new perspective will make your life better when you get home than before you left. You will have an appreciation for those things that the rest of us don't-not because we don't appreciate our families, but because we haven't seen any differently to be reminded constantly how blessed we are. Although I know you can't say "gosh, I'm so glad I got to go to Iraq!" at least I know you'll come home and know even more how great home is. And maybe your contribution to Iraq isn't something you can see on a large scale. But likely God has been working through you, behind the scenes, in ways you'll never know. I'm sure you've touched lives in ways you'll never get to know about in this lifetime-but at least you did touch lives. Keep your head up and we'll stay on our knees for you. M. Pads Coach
I can't begin to imbelish on the above comments. They've said it all. All I can do is say, "I second that and may God continue blessing you and America".
The above comments are right. You may not see the lives you have touched until you get to heaven. Americans take so much for granted, but you and all our military people there will appreciate our country and way of life much more upon your and their return. God hasn't left that country and He won't. Come back and love your family, friends and God. Nana
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