Acute Politics Is going back to Iraq

Posted By Blackfive

The Teflon Don of Acute Politics is heading back to Iraq, not for another tour as a combat engineer finding IEDs and bad guys, but as an independent blogger/photojournalist.

Jimbo, Mr. Wolf and I had the pleasure of throwing back a few drinks with TD not too long ago.  TD, with that far away look we use to keep us from getting too emotional about our personal losses, made the toast, "Gentlemen, to absent companions!" and with that toast we must drain our glasses.  I had Macallan 18, full to the rim, and downed it, turned the glass over, and put it on the table.   We were in a Mexican themed bar and TD and I were drinking Scotch...surreal, yet appropriate.  It was the first time we were quiet all night.

So our friend TD is on his way back to Iraq:

I learned some things the last time I was in Iraq- I learned of courage, and brotherhood. I learned that there is no glory in war- there are few heroes, and many decent, ordinary men too stubborn to realize that their actions are irrational, dangerous, and, well… heroic. I learned of emotional agony and of empathy; I also learned how to be callous. I learned how to tell someone with your eyes that you would kill him if he didn’t cave. I lost some timidity, and gained self-respect. The war did not make me a man- rather; I learned through the war some essential elements of manhood.

There must be a name for this sickness, for this consuming malady that compels some few of us back into the conflict, back into the desert. It feels like a mild form of addiction- there’s the drive to get more of it, and the rush, and the memories. It comes without the wasting, without the needle marks (that’s a lie, actually- I have a wicked bruise in my elbow right now from blood tests), but it brings its own scars, flashbacks, and dementia. There’s something very existential about it- I am forever the sum of my experiences, after all, and time spent in austere environs, separated from my comfortable life and often in the heat of combat certainly qualifies as life experience.

I’m happy to be on my way back again...

Go read the whole piece.  Be sure to bookmark Acute Politics to keep an eye on what the Teflon Don has to say about Iraq and our fight there.

You can also support TD and others like him - independents going to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, where ever our fight is - at Public Media.

[Update:  Jules Crittenden provides an Acute Politics reader and we agree with his comments about the quality of his writing.]

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Acute Politics Is going back to Iraq

The Teflon Don of Acute Politics is heading back to Iraq, not for another tour as a combat engineer finding IEDs and bad guys, but as an independent blogger/photojournalist.

Jimbo, Mr. Wolf and I had the pleasure of throwing back a few drinks with TD not too long ago.  TD, with that far away look we use to keep us from getting too emotional about our personal losses, made the toast, "Gentlemen, to absent companions!" and with that toast we must drain our glasses.  I had Macallan 18, full to the rim, and downed it, turned the glass over, and put it on the table.   We were in a Mexican themed bar and TD and I were drinking Scotch...surreal, yet appropriate.  It was the first time we were quiet all night.

So our friend TD is on his way back to Iraq:

I learned some things the last time I was in Iraq- I learned of courage, and brotherhood. I learned that there is no glory in war- there are few heroes, and many decent, ordinary men too stubborn to realize that their actions are irrational, dangerous, and, well… heroic. I learned of emotional agony and of empathy; I also learned how to be callous. I learned how to tell someone with your eyes that you would kill him if he didn’t cave. I lost some timidity, and gained self-respect. The war did not make me a man- rather; I learned through the war some essential elements of manhood.

There must be a name for this sickness, for this consuming malady that compels some few of us back into the conflict, back into the desert. It feels like a mild form of addiction- there’s the drive to get more of it, and the rush, and the memories. It comes without the wasting, without the needle marks (that’s a lie, actually- I have a wicked bruise in my elbow right now from blood tests), but it brings its own scars, flashbacks, and dementia. There’s something very existential about it- I am forever the sum of my experiences, after all, and time spent in austere environs, separated from my comfortable life and often in the heat of combat certainly qualifies as life experience.

I’m happy to be on my way back again...

Go read the whole piece.  Be sure to bookmark Acute Politics to keep an eye on what the Teflon Don has to say about Iraq and our fight there.

You can also support TD and others like him - independents going to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, where ever our fight is - at Public Media.

[Update:  Jules Crittenden provides an Acute Politics reader and we agree with his comments about the quality of his writing.]

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