I Found Beauty in War

I fought in war, although the war had ended. I saw war when CNN called it "Operation Iraqi Freedom". It couldn't be liberation, or freedom, or anything sane. It was war. Ask anyone that was there. I saw it... I saw it twice. I jump when a door slams, and I wake up scared. So let the big "W" call it what he wants, but he wasn't there. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I was sent to war because it was my destiny. Or maybe it was bad Karma! Let me tell you something you will never know about Iraq. CNN will never broadcast this information, because it is not news. I am a soldier that found hope in the hate, in the fight, in the smoke, and in the heat. I found the sky. We live everyday with a sky hanging above our ever so important lives. Safe Americans are more focused on the oil change their car needs or the fact that they may have to put in a few hours of over time. A soldier, a gunner up in that turret is focused on his or in my case her sector of fire and protecting my brothers and sisters from incoming enemy fire and whatever else those wastes of live could scrape toghther to attack us with. Let me tell you, after sixteen hours standing in 140 degree heat, clinging to a .50 caliber machine gun, you are tired. Not tired, exhausted, almost willing so let it all go except you know that you are responsible for all the soldiers in that convoy. So what do you do... you look up at the sky. You find that hope and inner peace. Nowhere in the world will you find a more amazing sky, I can assure you. You don't believe me, you live in the most remote parts of Montana where the stars are bright, or Iowa where the sunrise glows orange. These places are beautiful I am sure of it, but put yourself in the worst hell you could imagine... now look up to the bright blue sky. The place smells horrid, the heat unbareable, not to mention you could likely be killed at any moment. Watch the Sun come up as you roll down the cratered highways of Iraq at dawn and tell me you have seen better. Watch the sun go down in a sand storm and tell me its not amazing. This is something beautiful I wanted to share with my fellow amercans about the worst place on earth. PLato may have said that "only the dead have seen the end of war" but I say only a soldier has seen the sunrise and the sunset and still go one to fight the war. Thank you for reading this. It may not be great, but its hope... for me at least. I will forever cherish my memories of the skies over Baghdad.