Why to Vote - quoting a soldier in Iraq

[Brian Dale]

There's a marvelous piece on what democratic elections are all about at the livejournal of an Army Reservist in Iraq who posts as ginmar. Some of you might have read her stuff before - she wrote back in April about the fighting in Kut, and a lot of bloggers linked to that piece.

She has a compelling piece about what democratic elections mean to her. It's called The Summer Soldier . It contains gems such as

I don't care who you vote for, I just care that you do. Our deaths, our injuries, our sacrifices, are all payment for that concept of giving people a voice. We've given you a gift. We've paid for it already. We are here, and we will be here till the job is done. Yet there are people who say that the process is stupid, flawed, unnecessary. They may be right. But we're here for a reaon, and every one who doesn't vote negates that reason just a bit.

People ask how they can support us.

Vote.

Most folks here will not need to be told this, but here goes. Be warned: she won't tolerate trolls, nor should she: it's her own electronic "living room." Be aware that a lot of liberal folks post there. Don't go there and pick arguments with them. Take Art's Grandmaw with you if you must, but read her stuff. Note that she also uses parts of the English language that you won't see at THR. She's probably not the first nor the only one in the Army to use harsh language.

She wrote on the Fourth of July, in part:

Independence is one of those concepts you think you understand---till you have to put it into action. Then it can feel an awful lot like exile. It tends to exhibit itself in small everyday things, not big gestures. (Except what's not a big gesture {about} liberating a country?) It can be breaking up with a boyfriend, leaving your folks' house, or just standing up and saying, "That isn't right." Here, it's the refusal of American and Iraqi both to surrender to the urge to join a mob, to let other people do the thinking.

It's Iraqis who are apprehending terrorists---or just facing them down-----unarmed. It's Israel Putnam, saying something he may or may not have said: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war .... Let it begin here." It's a lot of other things, too, but at bottom, it all boils down to thinking for one's self .... and then acting on it. It's not about being alone, although sometimes it can get you isolated. Learning that can be very hard.

You'll also encounter such bits as, from August 6th,

That's why I warn people in my bio: Hi, I'm a b----. I'm not the cute kind, either: It's twenty four seven, and I'm a feminist, and no matter how much you whine, neither is going to change. If only the perfect troops are getting the support, the footsore rest of us are in deep {doo-doo --H.Bob}.
{and down the page}...Captain Comic Book is the sort of officer who really does care about his troops, and he and I got into a fight over who got to go bed tonight. I'm sorry, sir, but on this matter, this lowly lower-enlisted person is the final authority. You have to go to bed. It's been twenty hours. I've never had a civilian boss who {cared that much}.

From September 22nd,

I like the night around here. Bats flip through the air, and the sky changes every night, deep and velvety in a way that the sky over big cities isn't. It's still a deep, deep blue, like the bottom of the ocean, and it looks as soft as the plumage of the doves that drift languidly out of your way as you walk to breakfast in the morning. After your eyes adjust to the darkness, you can see the black palm trees painted around the edge of the sky. Sometimes you take a corner in the darkness and suddenly you're in one small, ancient corner where there are no piles of electrical cables, discarded water bottles, or Humvees. For just a second, you're back in the time of Belshazzar or Hammurabi, with only the sharp angles of the buildings in front of you, and the stars in their new, alien arrangement above you. Then a generator coughs somewhere and you remember where you are.

Good stuff, from a soldier who's doing her job. I've posted the link to The Summer Soldier with ginmar's explicit permission.

 

[emc]

Nice material, Bob! Thanks for posting! NOT what you're likely to find in the newsrags.

emc