There are numerous news pieces lately about how bad things are getting in Iraq.
I am underwhelmed and unsurprised.
Karl and I have talked numerous times about exactly how long people have been fighting in the middle east. There have been wars in that area longer than there have been civilizations there.
Karl was not in Iraq because of some personal conviction he could broadly impact the state of Iraq. Karl was in Iraq because he volunteered to serve his county.
I have seen several opinion pieces written about how the bad news coming out of Iraq will impact veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. I, obviously, never went to Iraq. I never made friends with an interpreter, who believed his country could be better with America's help with such fervor that he was putting his entire family at risk of death and torture to help our soldiers. I never handed out food to old women who waited in line for hours for their share of rice. I certainly never shot a gun to protect the life of the man next to me.
However, I have given gifts. I have given a Whopper to a homeless girl in a Houston Greyhound bus station. I have given water bottles to men holding signs begging for money in 110 degree heat in Austin in August. I have picked up litter as I walked with my children through a park.
These acts are either meaningful or they are meaningless. The girl in Houston was hungry again, mere hours later, and I was well on my way to wherever I was headed, leaving her and her hunger behind. The men holding signs may use their water to hydrate themselves or they may pour it into a bowl for a thirsty dog or they may trade it for a cigarette. The park will, most definitely, be littered in again.
It makes me laugh how little control we have over how our actions and words are interpreted. We do the best we can, unfailingly. It is really all we can do.
The men and women who signed up to serve our country did exactly that. Our troops, because of motives I will never understand, tried to bring some modicum of peace to Iraq. We are not fixers. We are just people doing the best we can. Sometimes our actions have a lasting effect. Sometimes they don't. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing.
Our service members volunteered to serve and they saved each other when they could. That is more than enough. That is something to be proud of. They made a difference, maybe not a lasting difference in Iraq but a lasting difference in the lives of the people they stood next to in battle. They made a lasting difference to their friends and families who saw them in a new light and reevaluated what to expect of themselves and others. They made a difference to themselves, earning their citizenship or college money. They made a difference to me and every single other military spouse whose loved one came home. I know my husband is only here because of the men who stood beside him, figuratively but also, very very literally.
People litter, people fight, life sucks. Those are not good reasons to stop doing the best we can every day. They are horrible reasons to reevaluate what we have done in our lives. We do the best we can. In the end, that's all we can do and it is more than enough. It is amazing. It is honorable. It is humbling.
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