I was one of those people that believed that the USAmerican public would never accept an invasion of Iraq; the type that laughed when I first heard Bush II connect Saddam with Al Qaeda in late 2002 - no way people would accept that. But then the NYTimes and the other supposedly "liberal" press stood to attention and began marching to the drum beat of War. I don't think I ever really recovered from that experience; or rather, I never really went back to the way I was before. I was raised in AZ and everyone I went to high school who wasn't in college prep tracking classes, all of my friends from football, they all went into military service in one way or another. I looked up to them, and I wanted to learn how to "be a man," something they all seemed much better than me at being. They told me you want to learn that, join the Army. My parents were hippies, so telling them I was going to join the military was a strange form of teenage rebellion, in a way. But they did manage to talk me out of active duty service and into the Reserves; they didn't want me to give up my free ride at the local state University, and I'm glad I didn't.
