It’s Been 20 Years Since We Invaded Iraq. I Am Still in the Desert.
Even though many veterans came home physically from Iraq, we never fully returned home
“I have gone to war and now I can issue my complaint. I can sit on my porch and complain all day. And you must listen. Some of you will say to me: You signed the contract, you crying bitch, and you fought in a war because of your signature, no one held a gun to your head. This is true, but because I signed the contract and fulfilled my obligation to fight one of America’s wars, I am entitled to speak, to say, I belong to a fucked situation.”
— Anthony Swofford, Jarhead
Twenty years ago, I dug a hole at a fever pitch while on a beach in South Padre Island, Texas. It was a shallow hole, but enough to contain vomit full of beer and Lunchables that I’d deposited into the trench. After wiping my mouth and scooping sand over the puke, I stood triumphant and raised a fist to a chorus of cheers. I’d just beer-bonged three Miller Lites on a challenge.
For the uninitiated, beer bonging is when you pour beer into a funnel attached to a long piece of plastic tubing and then consume the alcohol as fast as possible. This process leaves you unbelievably drunk, but it’s a rite of passage among many college students. Granted, I couldn’t keep the liquid…
