Two-tour Iraqi veteran is a huge Obama fan. I found this out at a local dogpark.

[zulchzulu]

I walk my pup Nola in the neighborhood and a pretty big lake is just footsteps away from where I live.

My two-year-old dog, a euthanasia rescue half-lab/border collie parvo survivor, is a quick little gal. She loves the water, chasing squirrels, rabbits, birds, ducks and figments of her imagination.

So off we go to a little strand of a dog park that has easy access to the lake. She immediately begins racing, chasing and otherwise rumbling with a couple Labradoodles about twice her size. They jump in the water full speed and chase the ducks and race to fetch the tree stick found in the bushes.

The owner of the other dogs and I start talking about stuff as the dogs run around. It gets to what we do for a living and I tell him about my gig as a web developer. He then tells me he is an Iraqi War veteran that served two tours as a truck driver...and saw it all. He was stationed in Baghdad on the first tour and Mosul on his second. He has shrapnel in his chest from a roadside bomb where two of his buddies died on the scene. He's done with the military and gets paid monthly for the rest of his life. He's 25 now.

So we talked about the war and I asked what he thought. "I hated every second of it", he said and described how they would load tanks and weapons from Kuwait and get shot at all the way to their destination. They would then pick up things that got blown up and would rarely get shot at. He did that hundreds of times.

I asked him about Obama. He thinks that nearly all the soldiers there agree with him that they need to get out of Iraq and do something good for Afghanistan. "It's a good war there", he said.

While I would not necessarily agree on the full mission and our exit strategy in Afghanistan, it was refreshing to hear a young Iraq War veteran who likes Obama.

I'm sure we'll have our dogs run around the park again.

[Veruca Salt]

1. k&r!

There's more veterans who think this way then people sometimes realize. My brother is a veteran of Afghanistan and he thinks the same way. He's in his early twenties and just got his veteran license plate for his car... I did a double take when I saw it because sometimes we just forget that, yes, in fact our veterans are no longer just an older generation; and they are more progressive then most ever realize.

[zulchzulu]

2. Congratulations to your brother

I agree with you that the new generation of veterans have a keener eye on what's going on. I've met a few with a program started here in Wisconsin called "Mission Welcome Home". I've gone to a number of events where there are some real heart-breaking stories... many support Obama that I met.



I designed the logo.


http://dva.state.wi.us/welcomehome.asp

[Cha]

4. Nice logo! It makes

me all emotional because of everything that went into all of this over the last 7 years.

[zulchzulu]

6. Pm me

I have some scwag.

[Cha]

8. O..

kay..

[Veruca Salt]

11. I love the logo!

And yes the veterans definitely do. From conversations with my brother there of course are those who do hold fundamentalist and rightwing beliefs, but our more progressive service members are debating them and making them think! Some of my favorite stories from my brother was the wingnuts he would debate with; and he wasn't the only one. I think that will go a long way as well; my brother always says that 'even though I may not change their mind I've made them think'.

And thank you for the service to our service members! It makes a world of difference in their lives just to talk sometimes. When my brother came back there was this sort of lost look in his eyes that he didn't have before he was deployed. It's gone now for the most part but in the beginning when he returned home; while he didn't talk about everything; at least we let him unload what he needed to and it has helped.

[Cha]

3. Thanks for the

nice refreshing personal anecdotes by the dog park lake, zulch.

That 25 year old soldier has seen more in his years than most of us will have to experience in a lifetime.

[zulchzulu]

5. Photo soon...

I'll upload a photo next time I see him and his dogs. I think they keep him sane.

[Cha]

7. Good..I love

the internet!

[KakistocracyHater]

9. Berlin food drop for Afghanistan

& medicines & other necessities. I think that's the part of 'war' that thr Right has forgotten about. The Dem leaders who were smart & won ww2 are mostly all dead now, but they had the Marshall Plan & built in anti-fraud measures into it. The Bush regime did the opposite, which for me was a big tip-off. Endlessly dropping bombs on villages & towns.....drop stuff that feeds them & buy up those poppies to turn into badly needed morphine. Pay them more than the drug dealers-think people!(Obama, Clinton, etc)

[zulchzulu]

10. Wow. That is a fantastic idea!

Have them convert the poppies and/or sell to those who need morphine for rehabilitation, etc.

Such a great idea!

:thumbsup:

[Veruca Salt]

12. Kicking this thread for this idea!

it is wonderful, you would think the planners would think of some of the past successes like those you mention!