An Active Duty Marine Tells Me, "The war is total bullshit, and everyone knows it."

A googlechat conversation I had last night with a Marine I know from Camp Pendleton:

X: hey whats going on

me: holy shit, where are you?

X: I am in Colorado right now...I leave June 5 [to go back to Camp Fallujah]

me: no shit, where in colorado?

X: [name of city], at my parents house.... where are you at?

me: I happen to be in Dallas right now

X: nice...you bounce all over the place dont you? lol

me: i do get around. are you still shipping out of Pendleton?

X: I flew into Dallas when I came home... I have already been over there for 6 months, I had to go to CPEN for shit [details of shit redacted] and then they let me come home for a week to see [Z]. [X's son]

me: from where?

X: from Kuwait

me: jesus. what is CPEN?

X: Camp Pendleton

me: ha! never saw that acronym, guess i was never one of the cool kids

X: shut the hell up cool kids lol

me: you know who you are. [Z] is with your parents?

X: yeah, since I have custody of him, he stays with them while I am deployed. what do you mean you know who you are?

me: you cool kids know who you are

X: whatever dude, I guess you were apart of us "cool kids" then, since you were always with us...

me: yeah, for a while, but only because I knew you . . . but now all the cool kids are in IVAW

X: yeah yeah....how is all of that going for you? You know you came up in my investigation when I did my lat move? ["Lat move" is military parlance for lateral move, or a change in your MOS, military occupational specialty, that happens mid-carreer.]

me: really? they asked you if you knew me?

X: yeah, they said that they knew you [redacted] with me and that I kept in contact with you currently over email and myspace and wanted to know my involvement with you

me: HOLY SHIT! are you afraid to speak out now? because of that bullshit?

X: yeah it was pretty crazy...not really. because of my job now they know everything anyways, so Its not like I can hide anything.

me: so are you going to join ivaw anyway?

X: I got 3 years left buddy...Once I get out the war will be over lol PROBABLY NOT!! Even though the war is total bullshit, and everyone knows it.

me: ok, so you accept that it's bullshit. Do you really want to sit back and just watch more marines die for that bullshit?

X: not at all...and it is sad to see it happen. I dont know I am very confused on the whole subject...we need to pull us out so we dont lose any more, but if we do leave, that place will get ran the fuck over. Ive been in Basra and Sadr to see what is happening there so I dont know... I am totally against this war and us being over there, and seeing how much money we are spending, the lives that are lost and for what? So these fucking doon coons can make no progress in a modern society and as soon as we leave go back to the way they were thousands of years ago living their primitive lives

me: they have been in the business of civilization a lot longer than we have, they will manage

X: these people are never going to change. NEVER. Its not our place to make a little USA of them.

me: It is almost racist to presume that the arabs inhabiting the longest-civilized part of the world won't figure shit out with out our help!

X: agreed. let them do it on their own as everyone else in the modern islamic world has.

me: Well then fucking do something about it!

X: i am one person bro, with my hands tied. i have 3 years to keep low and a son to worry about, i dont need any crazy shit going on in my life right now...i just got rid of the crazy shit i dont need anymore.

me: and what kind of world do you want your son to grow up in? evil only triumphs when good men do nothing.

X: im moving him to switzerland when I get out...LOL

me: well, maybe we'll get around to nuking switzerland before we get over this whole fascism thing

X: yeah. well...I dont know. You make my head hurt thinking about all of this! :)

me: that is the pain of weakness leaving the soul [A take-off on the popular Marine expression, "Pain is weakness leaving the body."]
you have to get past the cognitive dissonance
you have to exercise your full freedom of mind without fear

X: yeah well maybe in 3 years i can have that luxury...for now...I keep lo pro

me: excuses are like assholes. no offense, it's part of being human, it's just not the best of our nature. the opposite of love is not hate, but rather fear

X: you are CRAZY. you have nothing to fear, I on the other hand do. For good reason

me: nothing to fear but fear itself, right?

X: oh man, I really dont want to go down this road...ill be back in a second, its 9, time for [Z] to go to sleep. If you are on we will talk more. If not you can reach me at ***-***-**** or my parents house ***-***-****. Try cell first.

me: i'll be here