time

probably my favorite song from DarkSide of the Moon--"time has gone, the song has ended-thought I had something more to say"

writing like i think (as usual)--have more or less been offline last week or so-except to occasionally check e-news---i live about an hour away from Orlando--i had to remind myself that there was news other than Tiger---trying to find out some news about Afghanistan and Iraq--we have a young friend in his early twenties who is stationed in an FOB (forward operating post) in Army artillery in southern Afghanistan--this is his first holiday season over there-he gets to come home in Feb for when his wife has their first child---his best friend was killed by IED(improvised explosive device) a couple of weeks ago--i support him and all of our troops over "in the sandbox"--i don't know about what the whole thing is about over there and certainly as Colin Powell would say are---"our definable objectives and our exit strategy"--two things according to him we need before entering any conflict and hearing generals talk about how our objective was to "win the hearts and minds of the people"-------plagiarizing General Westmoreland who said the same thing about VietNam---talked to a couple of senior NCO's who have been in theater as tankers-crewmember on Abrams tanks-one said that he was more concerned about all the years he has been around depleted uranium shells (standard Abrams tank ordnance) than the rest of the things there----and today the Ft Hood units left for deployment-this was the deployment that the psychiatrist was supposed to go on before he decided to shoot the folks there----it's a crazy world, an Arab-American killing people because he was afraid to be deployed to Muslim countries------as an officer if he so strongly felt that he couldn't go or was being "taunted"--he could have resigned his commission and paid back all the money the Army had spent on him---IF resignation had been refused he could have been introduced to a cell in Levenworth if he didn't do well in the court-martial or if he hadn't been able to convince them he had mental health problems after months of coverage on CNN-but he decided to do what he did ---------don't know, don't want to go any further down that road--
parts of the life i miss, some that i don't--

and great job by Shirley and Harry on the December WordCatalystMagazine---it looks great and as usual good stuff to read or to look at--

Peace
-will-