|
A Doughboy in xml:namespace
prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" ?>Baghdadxml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" ?>By Kathleen Fatooh
Refposition.com is an Affordable Website SEO Company providing SEO Packages to get you top rankings on the web. seo company
Jason has a swimming pool in downtown Baghdad. That caught my ear. I’ve heard about extended tours of duty, denied VA benefits,
the closure of veterans’ hospitals. I’ve heard about a lot of ways
we fail to support our troops, from the lack of WMDs and the plastic Thanksgiving turkey to sending them shampoo, but failing
to provide water so they can use it. So I wondered, how was it Jason had a swimming
pool?
Jason’s dad is mighty proud. At the airport he looked so good in uniform, six and a half feet tall and buff.
His dad just cried, big tears rolling down his face. Jason’s aunt says he’s six two but no, his dad says, he looked
seven feet tall. In Los Angeles Jason bought ski gear then hit the Sierra snow.
In San Francisco, he bought a wetsuit and a surfboard then
spent the rest of his leave in the ocean.
Jason’s dad is proud of the way he invested his pay. Jason bought penny stocks and did well. After his four years,
Jason will get out with 40K in the bank, plus the 60K towards college. He’s fit. He’s smart. He’s solvent.
He’s everything we admire.
Meanwhile, with ten-hour workdays, a guy has to have some way to unwind. That’s why Jason has a swimming pool
in downtown Baghdad. “But Iraqis are going without drinking
water and electricity,” I could have interrupted, only then Jason’s dad would know I was eavesdropping, and I
didn’t want to stop the flow of his talk.
Jason is smart, and he knows how to work the system. Jason has a swimming pool full of cool, refreshing water. He has
chlorine, liquor and pool boys. Pool boys? I wished I could ask about that. Iraqi pool boys, I suppose. While destroying infrastructure,
the military brings so many jobs to locals: bartender, prostitute, pool boy.
It would be nice if all our soldiers had such a cool way to unwind, but isn’t it a bit ironic? A doughboy is an infantryman. A doughboy has a pool. Of course, if we really supported our troops they
wouldn’t need a pool in downtown Baghdad, they wouldn’t
even be there fighting an unjustifiable war. Iraq
today is no summer vacation. But Jason has it wired. Jason embodies American wartime opportunism.
Jason’s aunt says she happened to run into a young woman on leave from a tour of duty in Iraq, and this young woman knew Jason. “Oh yeah, Jason?
He’s the one with the pool party!” So I’m not revealing any
state secrets here. Everyone knows that Jason has a swimming pool. But nobody knows why these people hate us. They hate our
way of life, we’ve been told, and what we stand for.
|
