Everything old is new again.

I was thinking about it today and I realized that for nearly 23 years I've known someone who had close ties to Iraq.

I have co-workers who had not yet been born the first time we sent people to that country.

In the early 90's the older siblings of many of my friends ended up going over there as part of desert storm/desert shield.

In the mid to late 90's many of my peers ended up going over there as part of the peace keeping force, or to enforce the no-fly zone.

Over the course of the last decade and a half many of my peers, and the younger siblings of my peers have headed over. 

And as I sit here tonight, waiting for tomorrow's inevitable announcement that we're once again sending troops to that dusty desert shithole, I realize that many of my friends growing up have kids who will likely get caught up in it this time around.

And I have to ask why.

I'm not trying to marginalize the service of anyone who went over there, but why are we there?

I mean the first time we said it was because they invaded Kuwait, but does anyone (aside from the BP board of directors and the Kuwaiti royal family) really give a shit about Kuwait?

Then they said it was to protect the Kurds, who we let get gassed into near extinction for a decade.

Then they said it was for weapons of mass destruction, which we never found.

Now we're saying it's to stamp out the terrorism that has taken root since we last destabilized the region.


Am I the only one who notices that we need to 'bring democracy to Iraq' just about every time the economy takes a dump or we find ourselves headed into an uncertain election season?


Just a thought.

And again, I'm not trying to trivialize the pain and sacrifice of the folks who've been directly caught up in this cluster-fuck for the last 20 some odd years.

I just wonder.
With hundreds of thousands of homeless vets,
a crumbling economy
a crumbling infrastructure...

Is going back to Iraq again really the answer?