There are so many other people who can put thoughts and emotions into words MUCH better than I can. So, just consider this blog as a re-post of a re-post. I was having my daily read of the sandmonkey’s blog (www.sandmonkeyblog.com) and came across a little snippet he reposted from a journalist in Haifa, Israel.

Long story short… replace Hezbollah with “Iraqi insurgent”, Beirut with “Baghdad”, and Israeli with “America”. It’s almost uncanny how acurate it describes my situation here in Iraq:

“It’s nothing like Beirut, where entire blocks of buildings are being
blasted to dust. Yet Hezbollah’s here-and-there rockets play a great
mind-game on Israelis, putting fear and uncertainty in their hearts.

We went back to finish the interview interrupted by the first
rocket attack. Then, as we stood back on the balcony, the sirens wailed again.

I’ve seen terrorist attacks and warfare in different countries,
but that wail is new for me. It’s freaky, because you know something is coming but you don’t know where. It could be where you’re standing – you just don’t know.

As the sirens shriek, you find yourself wondering, “Why am I
not taking cover?” And then you lamely think, “Well, it’s probably safe up here.”

Finally, you decide it’s all a gamble. All you can do is to
wait for the next missile to drop — and it will drop where it pleases.”

Betsy Hiel http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/middleeastreports/s_463069.html

Situations like this are just as scary for civilians as they are for soldiers. The difference, I think, is that a soldier will push aside the gut wrenching feeling because our job is to be in these situations. I find it humorous that I haven’t written the exact same experience that this journalist is going through mainly because… well… I’m playing the role of a soldier. I signed a piece of paper that ultimately says, “Get comfortable with the fact that there is a possibility people will drop bombs on you.”

But the truth is that sirens and explosions and death are not normal. No one should ever get comfortable by this sort of thing. In retrospect, I can see how edgy I was when I first arrived. Just the notion of how everything was so random drove me mad. They still do, to a point. But I’ve almost relieved myself from worrying about it anymore. I’ve almost gotten comfortable with the notion. And now that is a completely different thing to be worried about.