Distant thunder

It’s so weird how isolated a FOB can make you.

I’ve watched the news over the past few days. Attacks rock the country. The insurgency has unleashed waves of bombings against the civilian Iraqi population. 30 dead here…40 dead there…14 wounded…80 wounded. There are kidnappings, spectacular attacks on convoys, assassination attempts, resignations of government officials.

Some would think the soldiers would be here in careful silence, watching from the sidelines like the second or third string, watching a struggling defense.

But things here on our FOB are strangely quiet. I’m sure the commanders and leaders hash out all the particulars in their private meetings, but the rest pay little attention to the war.

Most soldiers don’t even watch the news. “Oh more died? Hrmmph.” The big crisis today at the office was that the cable went out. No SportsCenter. Wow. The big crisis yesterday was that the sandbags they’re putting around the trailers block the stairs to the doors.

It’s like we’re playing a video game. Sure, we’ll tune in and hunker down to get past level 13, but after that we’ll put things on pause.

I get to head out on mission again next week – on some chopper missions south around Baghdad. It’ll be a good chance to see if all these rumors are true that there’s still a war going on out there.

Part of me is glad for the shelter, but most of me wonders why the Army brought so many people here to attend meetings, when they could have attended meetings back in the states.

War is delightful to those who have not experienced it — Erasmus

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