Talking with Drew about Iraq and the Future

Friday, April 16, 2010

I actually slept in till 7:15 this morning, which makes a huge difference in my day. The girls even slept in a bit, so we watched Morning Joe till about 7:45 when they got home. Both as usual, we full of it, especially Hayden, in a great mood, after her fit last evening over cookies. Stacie came by, picked up Hayden, dropped off Madison, was back by 8:30, to pick up Halle and Madison and take them off to pre school, a really nice time saver for Jill. I then went for a long walk with Cody, about 45 minutes, along the pathway, which winds its way through the various housing developments. It’s really a neat trail, a great place to talk and ride a bike, as it’s all cement walkways, and connects with various neighbornhoods as it winds its way through the housing developments. I think I wore out Cody, as he came in, filled up on water, and collapsed on the floor, and hasn’t moved since.

We head off to Costco at 1:00, after a lunch of chicken/artichoke/cheese sausages from Costco. We went to Costco to stock up on veggies for the week, met Drew there, and went to AT&T to get our phones fixed. Then off to drop Drew’s car off in the boonies somewhere, and came back to the house. Around 4:00, Drew and I went out for a beer at Frankies and had a good talk about his experiences in Iraq. They really were responsible for everything, from training troops, to setting up networks of contacts, to hunting bad guys, to mediating disputes. He seems fairly optimistic about he Iraqis, that they seem to have stepped up and want things to work, though it’s a long way to a civilized democracy. He seems to have made friends with lots of Iraqis, from various levels, troops to generals, and established some lasting relationships, if he ever had to go back. He seems to think most Americans will be out in a year, with a token army left, perhaps 40,000, though of those, 20,000 will be support for the other 20,000, and in a country that size, that won’t be much help. In other words, things are in the hands of Iraqis next year, to make or break. We also talked about how difficult it is to come home after 9 months away, how he and Jill have talked about the difficulties they will face, how he cannot walk in and expect Jill to do things his way. He seems very patient and empathetic. He also wants to be with the girls in the future, one of the reasons he will most likely retire in four years, 3 in Washington, then hopefully one more before he retires. There is a chance he could be given a battalion but the competition is so severe he thinks it’s unlikely, so he doesn’t think he will go for it, though I know he’s curious to see if he would be chosen. It would mean another move for the family, for a year of two, then retire, but he is always aware of the stress on families, and he wants his life settled by the time Hayden is in junior high. He did tell me briefly about a terrible story, a young 13 year old, the daughter of one of his 10th group soldiers, committed suicide a couple of months ago in their home. He used that as an example of how difficult it often is for family’s, not just the wives, but also children. He also mentioned that only one of his group died in this rotation, a result of a truck rolling over, a non combat accident, and this was the fewest injuries ever. We came home to a dinner of barbecued chicken and noodles, played with the girls till 9:00 and then put them to bed. Jill and Drew worked for the next hour, getting organized, and we all went to be fairly early, around 10:00 as they had a big day tomorrow.