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Friday, March 23. 2007

A New York lawyer in Iraq

Lt. John Renehan in The New York Sun. A quote:

Two years ago, I worked as a lawyer in one of the high buildings in this city. Today, my clothes carry a first lieutenant's bar and say U.S. Army on them. I wear the American flag on my shoulder, under which festers a smallpox vaccination pustule, with anthrax in the other arm. In less than a month I will be in Kuwait, thence to Iraq. My life these days is inexhaustibly surreal.

I am not an Army lawyer, but a platoon leader in an artillery battery. So the same friends I used to debate the 2000 election results with are now harangued with the principles of fire support and counterfire missions. I tell them about Army life and I console them with my claim that I may very well spend most of my tour safe in the confines of the base, which may or may not be the case. And when we are done with the Army talk, and my perfunctory questions about how things are going back here in the city, I find there is not much else I have the interest or energy to discuss.

Is it overly dramatic to say that this city seems frivolous to me now? Well, it does.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Gwynnie in Politics at 14:49 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Kind of a theme emerging today--maybe it's due to the Dem's nasty biz concluded today in the House--but the same note is in the Sun and the Harper's pieces linked here @ Maggie's, as well as the Chicago Boyz and Classical Values pieces linked @ instapundit:

http://instapundit.com/archives2/003547.php
#1 buddy larsen on 2007-03-23 15:19 (Reply)
That was a really good piece. I feel better about our country after reading it, thinking of all the people there still are with such values. His fiance is a lucky woman. Another fellow over there to add to my special prayers. Although how can one pray for any one of them more than all of them? Guess it's just easier to pray for a specific character, one can imagine going about his or her daily activities, than a crowd.
#2 retriever on 2007-03-23 16:49 (Reply)
retriever, your mind is quite fascinating.
#3 buddy larsen on 2007-03-23 17:07 (Reply)
BL, you are kind, but most people just
consider me eccentric, bordering on wacko.Am amusing myself[after a long week at a job, not at all an adventure] before our couples Bible study collecting articles and quotes for a class comparing Egyptian and other fertile crescent sources for the book of Proverbs. Plus a dash of Jewish mysticism. Husband would rather I just cleaned the @?*# house.if rather go to Iraq too, but too old.
#4 retriever on 2007-03-23 18:17 (Reply)
Holding onto tradition on the homefront is also crucial to this war--
#5 buddy larsen on 2007-03-23 19:03 (Reply)
The Lt. will do well I think. He seems too have learned a majority of the important lesson's. I am actually somewhat surprised at that. A couple of things he mentioned are/were normally learned on the battlefield. Quickly and at times remorsefully. We are fortunate to still have men and women such as he.
#6 Luther McLeod on 2007-03-23 20:53 (Reply)
Yes, we are lucky. There are more of them than we might think, out there. They just don't usually make the news - nor do they want to. Have to give this guy credit for writing the piece. He can write, too.
#7 BD on 2007-03-23 21:17 (Reply)
Yes, he can write, it would be a good milblog if he were to start one.
#8 Luther McLeod on 2007-03-23 21:32 (Reply)

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