When I lived in America, I had a friend who was came back from Iraq just to sign some divorce papers. He was in town for one day only and I happened to see him.

He looked jumpy, and scared, and just fucking ODD. He said he'd been shot at a lot.

I have no idea if he's alive.

Go team! Let's win this one for democracy in the Middle East!

*vomits*

What the fuck are we doing there, exactly?

A friend's husband is out there and the reality of what he's going through might as well be a totally parallel universe from what's shown and told on Fox News.

As you say, there are no words.

chuckdarwin, you can find out here if he's a casualty of war. Click on US casualties and you can search by state or city.

Some powerful writing about Iraq. "You close your eyes but smell only the familiar Third World stench of burning trash and hot diesel fumes mixed with Fallujahn streetfunk, dudesweat, sheepshit."

LT, you may feel "completely pathetic and powerless" but I bet a note from an old friend must mean a lot. Just write what you can. I think he will just be happy for the connection to his old life.

For anyone out there feeling trapped in a bad job/relationship/location... this just shows how much WORSE it can be.

And I concur with the hat above that an email "I Care Package" will certainly be welcome. Feel free to tell tales of the relatively totally undramatic lives of your fellow MeChans. Call it Comic Reality Relief.

I had a lot of penpals in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Growing up in San Diego I was surrounded by a lot of military people. They saw crazy things, just awful stuff, but they told me that my letters really made a difference when they were deployed... so I agree with what arse_hat's comment.

I would just do stupid things and write about it, and my friends would have a break from war when they disappeared into the pages I guess. For a few friends, I used to take a pad of paper and go to a bar... kind of pre-blog "blogging" the evening for them since they couldn't be there. Anyone who wanted to could add comments, and it became a little mini novel almost by the time we were done. I was told by the recipients that those were really appreciated & never going to be thrown away. All I know is that I wish I could read them again now, actually. They were probably pretty funny. :)

Shit, if I were there I'd be fucking ecstatic if someone mailed me a XXX coloring book and some coloring pencils (crayons won't do there, for the obvious reason.)

What the fuck are we doing there, exactly?

Amen to that. At least in Vietnam we were halfway in the shit for years before people really knew what was going on, and still there were some true believers in it.

In this disaster, the only people that really believed in it were the administration, its hardcore supports/people still feeling misdirected bloodlust after 9/11 and the media. The vast majority was pretty indifferent about it.

Hey that's a great idea, miss lynnster. I agree with arse_hat that your friend probably just wants a connection back to something less bizarre than what he is immersed in over there. Hell, you could probably write about a trip to the grocery store or doing the laundry and he would be happy to hear about it.

A good friend of mine from high school and college is in the navy and is over there. In Baghdad. We used to collect Wacky Package stickers in junior high - we both still have our collections of several hundred cards each. I picked up some packs the other day now that they're making them again, so I could send him some for the total hell of it.

As for why we're there, no words here either. I don't think anyone knows WTF we're doing there. I think it was a fuck up from day 1, now they realize it (they being the current US administration), and they're looking for a way to dress it up as a win. It's pointless and infuriating, and makes me wish I could turn back the clock to 2000 and never ever let those fucktards into the white house.

One of my Ohio friends works at the Columbus Washboard Company in Logan, the only washboard factory in the English-speaking world (I think there's another in China and one in India) and they send 'troop kits' out to service people.

They're seen as a bit of a joke at first by the troops, but then they realise how useful it is to have a little washboard, carbolic soap, a little line and clothespins (as well as instructions).

So if you know somebody out there, send them a washboard kit. My friend tells me they have more than enough donations at the moment to cover plenty of requests.

Is this guy in his forties? Crap. Crap. Can we all donate some money and send him an ipod filled with This American Life episodes and lots of music he'll like? I know that this is sort of a consumer response on my part, i.e. "buy something and make the pain go away" but it's all I've got for the moment.

There are few situations in which the F-bomb, in my opinion, is accurate and required, but F*cktards perfectly describes the people who are sacrificing our citizens right now.

disclaimer: this was typed on Percoset, so I may sound goofier than usual.

Man, that really sucks Lipstick Thespian. To join the army for a good education and then be sucked into a nightmare like this: I don't have the words either. But I'm sure he'd like to hear from you, about your life, and your doings in the normal world, like the others have mentioned above. It would be a great stress buster, and would also remind him of his humanity.

the fucking Bush Administration needs to be taken out back and shot--the fucktards

He wants to hear about my life, and what can I say? "Gee, I'm doing improv all summer for tourists?"

LT, you could try writing detailed, almost literary anecdotes about that, or maybe start cribbing from 'blogs and articles you find online. If he's in a space where he wants to be able to focus for on stuff that can give him brief mental vacations, that's good. I've seen where troops go the other way and can't relate to anything back in The World when they're in that kind of sitch.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000