I gotta say I am a little down, I have always been really political. I swing pretty hard to the right, I am very pro military, and I just found out some news that really gets me down. I know that most civilians want us to get the hell out of Iraq right away, but I hate to say it, it is really not that simple. To safely do it, I think it would take at least two to three years. Yes you heard me correctly, unless we want escalated troop deaths and a huge ammount of equipment left behind to equip anti american groups then at least two years time is needed. The cost will be more not less for a pull out as well.
I honestly think we should keep two bases active here and pull out from the rest and maintain a relationship with Iraq like we have with Korea. I know most people cannot see the long term benefit of this war, but believe me folks if you think really hard you can think up some. It really pisses me off when I am over here, risking my life, then I turn on the news and listen to all the crap spewing out, for me and a lot of the guys it is like getting slapped in the face. Even shows that used to be funny make me sick with all the bull shit they spout. I just read an article about mental health rates in the military and desertion rates and how they are rising, why do they need to broad cast that crap. Do people look beyond the war to see the actual soldiers, do they ever think that we might agree with the reasons behind the war.
Now here is what really pisses me off, the new pay plan for military spending bush proposed was turned back. You know what was involved in the package, a 3.5% pay raise along with money for training Iraqi soldiers and maintaining operations over here. Any one liberal or against the war is probably rejoicing right now not me. Because following after that was another broadcast, which told military personell to expect lay offs and pay cuts. You see, we will continue this war until we accomplish our mission, our job is not to fold to adversity in a political spectrum. Now we will be here still with less troops and less pay, and now in a more hazardous situation. Thank you democratic controlled congress for making a soldiers day.

Currently I am a soldier in the United states army, I am deployed in Balad Iraq. I am an ambulance driver, many of the calls I get are not serious, some of them are.Last evening I was running through my usual routine, working out getting dinner and waiting on calls. I was trying out Halo three when the call came. My squad leader and I rushed to our ambulance, and started it up. We donned our kevlars and flack vests, radioed the propper people then turned the sirens and lights on. I was driving and it was kind of frightening because I am such an awful driver, the speed limits here never go above 35 mph, and the roads are extremely narrow. In an emergency you can exceed the guidelines I was going seventy five miles per hour to the site.
When we arrived we initially had one patient, he was shot in the leg the arm the back and the hip. He was twenty six years old and he was fully alert and conscious, complaining in Arabic about pain. I got an I.V. and vitals while my squad leader wrapped his injuries and bandaged him. We loaded him on the ambulance, and were stopped as an alligator rolled up it's lights flashing and siren wailing. I jumped out of the back of the ambulance as the vehical pulled up close and we saw a small child laying on it. He was eight years old, and he had a bandage on his abdomen holding his intestines in his body. He had blood crusted on his nostrils and was breathing shallowly. We pulled his pants off to search for other wounds and were assaulted by the smell of feces, he had shit his pants from the force of the bullet in his guts. The bullet had exited out his back but he was not bleeding to badly. We strapped him in and loaded him up as another medic ran up and told us we could expect 8-10 more casualties, this had officially become a mass cal. We radioed our other ambulances and told them the situation. I climbed in the back and began to work on the patients while my partner was driving as fast as possible to the hospital. I got an I.V. on the little boy and he started to lose consciousness. I kept screaming at him in arabic the few words I knew to keep him awake. We dropped those two off and went back for more the next two.
One was an older woman and a baby, the baby had one leg blown off at the knee and the other was shredded with shrapnel. The woman was shot in the gut. The baby was crying as gave her an I.V. and when I was done I gave her a stuffed elephant we keep for small children. The older woman I gave an I.V. and continued to monitor the baby as we neared the hospital for the second time.
The third trip out we got two men one an ab and hip wound the other was an ab and throat. The ab and throat was fading fast when we got there. We had to run an I.O. infussion with Hextend fluids. the other got a regular I.V. On the way back to the hospital I was screaming at one of them to keep him focused on me, I tried everything to keep him conscious sternal rubs, but he lost consciousness on me, when he did I started CPR, I kept going even as his eyes rolled back in his head and he sputtered out his last breath. I knew he was dead so did the other guy in the ambulance, so I turned and started treating him, checking vitals and running a second I.V. in him. We got to the hospital and they unloaded our patients I told them the guy was dead my squad leader looked at me questioningly, they called a doa. We rode back out and waited until they called the scene clear.
A total of eight patients were brought out, none were american. The insurgents in this attack were a group of women not men, they were going door to door shooting their neighbors and tossing explosives into their houses. When we were done it was pretty solemn we cleaned the blood from our uniforms cleaned up our ambulances and waited for more calls. Is it wrong to want help these people survive we are at war here and so many people want us to pull out, but I can't help but believe that had we not been their last night the casualties would have numbered eight and not one. I suppose I see this war in a different light then most people, I see it in heart beats and last breaths, I see it in I.V.s and blood soaked bandages, I see the tear stained faces hear the cries of pain I see the difference we make daily one life at a time. At this moment I would love to be with my friends and family but I am needed much more here and would gladly spend my life doing this. I have fourteen months left here and I will continue to post stories about Iraq hopefully they are stories of triumph and not tragedy.

Well I am shutting my computer down for a while, I am getting a lap top while I am on block leave. I am on block leave for two weeks then I go over to another place that I am not supposed to talk about. I will be there for 15 months as a medic, I am going to like it because it is the job I want to do saving peoples lives is a great feeling if I was not doing this in uniform I would be doing it in scrubs in a civilian hospital. If I pissed any one off sorry it was never my intention, especially Sock Puppet. The place I am going might have internet so I might be able to chat it up still while I am there any way take care.
PFC Joshua Joseph Blair

So I'm doing this army thing, I'm loving it. You know pretty low pay but the benefits balance it out. I get to go see my family soon, because I am going to deploy really soon. We're going through briefing hell right now, death by power point basically. I won't be able to make offensive comments pretty soon because I will be over there again.