Ham and Eggs

Elderly Iraqi woman. I can’t begin to imagine what her eyes have seen.

Heading home soon. I’m looking forward to traveling back to Atlanta and reacquainting myself with my wife and sons. I began to think about this the other day and came to the realization that for the Iraqi people this is home. They have no place to go to; no refuge to retreat to. In Iraq, they’re “all in”.

Foreigners speak of how many days, weeks, months they have left “in-country”. They all know that if they just stick it out and do their jobs that time will pass and they can hopefully return home to their wives, children, girlfriends… Iraqis don’t have this luxury. This is it for them; this is their home. They can’t afford to have the emotional distance that the foreign soldiers and workers enjoy. It’s sort of like the old joke about ham and eggs for breakfast; the chicken’s involved, but the pig’s committed.