Choices

We have a lot of choices, and many choices in life are rarely perfect So, we decide we want to make a difference, we want to help our world and make it a better place The consequences are punishing, unforgiving, and sometimes we question why we chose this path So, what’s the point? The point is responsibility of duty, love of freedom and a way of life Are we on the right side? These are not our questions to ask, a soldier does as he or she is bidden, we fight for the person standing next to us and we fight for those who can’t stand anymore and we fight so that others can have the opportunity to make a difference and that’s how we make the unforgivable, the unforgettable, somehow livable, and if we are lucky somewhere in all the fighting and the dying we discover hope, and yet we live with the knowledge that those soldiers and those they sought to protect, who were killed and bled and died, will always be warriors in their different personal battles whose families have to live with the unspeakable demand of the unbearable sacrifice As for the ones who make it home, we never really leave our comrades behind, over spans of time we always leave a little of us back there on the fields, sands and earth, we always remember we are in both life and death regardless of colour, creed or country, brothers and sisters in arms. Bagram Air Base arrival 2004