20 years ago today, we crossed into Iraq again. Regardless of politics, those of us who had been there in 1991 saw it as unfinished business. After this tour, I went again in 2005 and 2008. We got to know the roads, bases, and cities as well as any back home. We missed a lot of birthdays and holidays. We saw a lot of tragedy, and a lot of triumphs. We saw the very best in humanity and animalism that you can only imagine. We lost friends and comrades – and call what were complete strangers, “brother” or “sister” today. Since, we have lost too many to suicide, accidents, and disease. We have gone to funerals for men and women that died way too young. We have seen the VA go from an uncaring, broken, anemic bureaucracy to something much better…but many still fall through the cracks. We have come to understand that our time there bought the Iraqi people a chance – but not much more. We have come to understand that wars don’t solve much, especially for those that live and die in the maelstrom. But we also know that sometimes it has to be done. For liberty. For humanity. For family.

Don’t pity us. We are something that those who haven’t been can never be. We have something that you can’t buy. We are the .45% of modern society that knows what war really means. As fucked up as it was, most of us would do it all over again. Just, next time, don’t tie the hands of our sons and daughters. Don’t let the weapons merchants and their Generals delay, draw out, and stall. Let the US Military do what we do best – win the war. It won’t be pretty. It won’t be clean. War is hell, and the only way to win is to make the other guy wish he had never thought to resist.

Photo is of day one of OIF, 20 MAR 2003, somewhere near Nasiriyah.