Response to a comment...

In response to the previous entry, I had an interesting comment that I worth expounding on – and I did in a commented response – but I think it and the response are worthy enough to put into a new post – AND it keeps my stuff updated without really adding anything new – because I don’t really have anything new, yet. I’m beginning block leave and that’s about it.

ANONYMOUS WRITES:
“I find your post very interesting. one: You are a Soldier ready to deploy soon (ie SRP) and you are contemplating death and the after-life. Do you think that you might die while in Iraq? Is your job that dangerous? Are you having thought of why you are going?Two: Your grasp of human religious needs is extraordinary. I believe I read some teachings of Plato and Socrates that have described almost the same belief. You learn more each time. I am sorry that you have to fight this war for your country. I feel sorry for your wife and family. You are leaving them to fight for something that sounds like you really don't believe in. America has joined this "War of the Gods." And have people like you who do not know where you stand with God, doing the fighting and experiencing the bloodshed.”

MY RESPONSE:

Addressing the 'anonymous' post above:I wouldn't say that I am contemplating death any more now than I have in the past. Death is the inevitable end to the current life. I have given no real thought to specifically dying while deployed. I do not think that my job is very dangerous and I'd say that statistically, I will be less likely to die in Iraq than I am here. Why? In Iraq, my job keeps me in a secure location that has seen diminishing attacks by insurgents. My chances of being killed by enemy activity (which is really the only chance of being killed there now) are slim. I won't be going on patrols, I won't be in a guard tower or watching the gate. I suspect that my greatest threat will be from the stray mortar round that may or not be fired. I have a greater chance of dying here, in a car accident, or falling down the stairs than I do of being killed in Iraq. So, I am not contemptlating death based on a sudden increase in chance of testing my eternal-mortality, but merely as an attempt to explain what I think could be the afterlife.I have read some Plato and thereby Socrates, and in fact have a fantastic translation of the works at my home that I would like to take with me, but its rather flimsy and wouldn't survive... I digress and ramble again. I am sure that I will continue to brush up on my ancient philosophers 'over there' and I suppose we'll see where we end up.Don't be sorry for me. I don't need pity and the Soldiers who are over there don't need it either. My family will suffer worse than I. It is interesting though, thinking about it, if situations were reversed, and my wife had to go and not me, I would be the first to say, 'I would rather it be me that goes.' And so in that regard, I guess I'm glad it IS my and not her. My family is strong and will perservere. They might not always understand why, or agree with what has to be done, but they will pull through. That kind of goes along the lines of the title of this page - "Per Incendia" - "By Fire" - which makes us stronger for the experience.As to whether I believe in what we are doing. In a previous post, further down the page, is a shrot discourse on Iraq and there is a discussion on what I believe regarding this. The bottom line is, I think that the 'bad guys' are not going to stop attacking us - regardless of where we are. I would rather force them to fight on their ground, from their buildings, with their families being the collateral damage than to quit the fight in Iraq for a few months or years of peace while they rebuild and once again come to us. We all remember 9/11 and the same people are the ones attacking us still. If for one minute we think they won't come knocking here again, I think the British have a more recent memory we should draw from.America hasn't joined a "War of the Gods." America has joined in a battle for the security of its people by engaging the enemy in a foreign land - away from my family and yours. The fact that we are engaging them in a land that has been decimated by years and decades and centuries of war is more or less pointless. We are not there to convert them to America's religion, but to give them an opportunity they haven't been given before - to govern themselves free from fear. Once their government is established and their security forces are sufficient to defend them, we will leave. Once that happens, maybe they fall back into a dictatorship or maybe they thrive as a free nation - either way, we will have done our part to give them the chance.This is not a Crusade by the Christian America to convert the heathen Muslims, but a noble effort by the richest nation in the world to perhaps bring a modicum of peace and stability to a nation whose children have never known any such thing.I am confident in my stand with God. I am confident that - as my wife like to quote Galileo - "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." By using these gifts, we come closer to understanding.--I guess at this point I have to rescind a previous statement wherein I claimed that no one reads these things. And I am glad for it.