The fog of war

Got a call from my brother yesterday.
This in and of itself, is not that unusual -- but he was calling from the airport where he was sitting with his battalion getting ready to get on a military transport on his way to Iraq.
For the third time.
This deployment got to me. Not sure why.
Well, I think anytime you send people to war, it should be cause for concern. It just seems like how many times does a single family have to go through this?
Please understand, I was raised in a military family. My father served 22 years as a career officer. It has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I also fully understand that this is a volunteer army and Patrick enlisted when we were at war. Not like it was a surprise.
All that said, it still doesn't change the fact that it sucks.
And everyone telling me "well at least he is going to Iraq and not Afghanistan -- it has to be safer" can, in the immortal words of Tina Fey last night "suck it"
You are going to a war zone. I don't care if one is more or less stable than the other.
ITS A WAR ZONE.
That in and of itself negates any concept of safe in my mind. And when fundamentally, I am not a big fan of the war itself, it gets harder and harder to accept. But, he is a big boy and it is his choice, not mine.

Lets just hope that we can get this new administration in and start seeing some progress on all of this. Not that it will get him home any earlier. I am not that naive.
As a point of clarification, I don't think this is a result of being hormonal and pregnant. I think its the result of a sister watching her little brother go into something that NO 25 year-old kid should have to see -- much less for the 3x time. And knowing that no matter how well protected he is and how competent his commanding officers are, there is risk. Always will be.


On to the lighter portions of our programming.
The masses continue to fall on the online pool --
Against all her best lunar wishes to the contrary, Kara's date of the 11th has come and gone without any results. At least for me. One of my girlfriends who was due 4 days AFTER us (let me repeat: FOUR DAYS AFTER US) delivered a healthy little girl yesterday. So the full moon was a fair bet, just not for us. Congrats to both Sarah and Kirk on their new addition. We are super excited for them -- and eager to join the club.
We have one vote for today -- odds are looking like we won't hit that one. And two more for tomorrow. Joe is now convinced that he will decide to arrive Wednesday. When we are in the middle of more blizzard like conditions and sub-zero temps before the wind chill kicks in.
Should be an ideal time to deliver a kid.
So stayed tuned kids -- one of these days (hopefully sooner rather than later) we will have great news & pictures to share...

Now Listening: Volume One by She & Him