4 Years Since the War Ended

It has been four years since my final return from Iraq. My life has taken some huge steps since that day. I have a wife that is amazing. I am going to college, which is something I never thought I would do. I have put on at least 50 pounds and I can now count the number of times I shave in a year on my fingers. The war and the thoughts that the war have inspired are still going strong in my head though. I do not talk to my war buddies as much as I did when we first got out of the Army. The passing of time has the same affect on bonds built in war as they do on every other friendship. I still stay in contact with a few of the guys. Some are just simple conversations on Facebook while there are a couple that I still remain in contact with over the phone. There are some guys that have died since then. That is a conversation for another time though. I have witnessed the same changes in my life take place in theirs also. War has a strange way of making the men that return home realize how completely fucked up the American way is. That is not to say that we all attack the same principles or ideas when we return home. Just that we come home to a nation that is concerned over problems that have absolutely zero bearing on every day life. Spending so much time in war thinking about coming home and the things that we want to do upon our return makes coming home to such trivial shit so painful. I did not care about politics while I was fighting a war for a politician. I just wanted to get my paycheck and make it back to Arkansas. Now I am so upset when I watch politicians try to force their beliefs on other through law that I want to slap a baby. I have seen this same change in my buddy, Sheets. Sheets and I used to spend every weekend together while we were in Texas. We never had a single conversation over politics or the news in general. We just played cards, listened to music, and drank until our bodies shut down. Watching him change has made me aware of the way my mind has evolved because of war. This is nothing new, I understand that. Vietnam vets came back and became activist. My generation of warriors are doing the same thing. I am not even sure what it means. I just know that I care now. I never thought I would. I do not care if someone gets married when it has no impact on my life. I do not care if someone makes a choice to have a child or not. I just care that people are allowed to make choices in their life without the involvement of the government or anyone else.