It's tough trying to do a blog and write a decent op/ed for a paper(in 300 words or less), all while trying to do a full time job in a war zone.
I'm trying to write a letter to the opinions editor of the ASU Herald (who just happens to be fellow conservative Lutheran Andrew Wilson) about why a quick military withdraw would be so disastrous (the tentative title is "Genocide, and Nothing Less"... noticeable enough?). It's been awhile since I've used the ole "making a case for the conservative by attacking from the left" (anyone that supports actions to help Darfur that reads this and still wants a hasty withdraw from Iraq while still knowing the country's tiny ethnic minorities face genocide are officially hypocritical scumbags). Anyways, hopefully this will wind up in the ASU Herald:

Genocide, and Nothing Less
By Hunter Shumard

As a soldier serving in our armed forces, I don't pretend to know the magic answer to the question of how to defeat the insurgents and bring my fellow soldiers home to their families. I can offer no advice other than focus on embedding our soldiers inside the Iraqi Army to train them more, being the most promising of the Iraqi authorities, and also to remind the Iraq government that we cannot keep fighting the good fight forever. What I do know is that the idea to redeploy our forces 4-6 months from now is simply the most irresponsible act we could do. The lucky ones would be powerful leaders of the Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish groups that would gain more autonomous power over their areas. The losers? Just about everyone else, but the Assyrian ethnic group in the country stands out. If the country goes under, they will be yet another small minority left behind in a war-torn country to be ethnically cleansed. There search for evidence on this isn't hard to find, as we have withdrawn from Iraq hastily once before in the first Gulf War, and I guarantee you, as there wouldn't not be any real authority, not even a dictatorship, the mass graves will be larger this time around. To leave now would be accepting that genocide is in Iraq's fate. Genocide, and nothing less.
The history of a democratic Iraq has is still in it's infancy, and will be for a long, long time. We were foolish to think we can take a multi-ethnic, war-ravaged country ruled under dictatorships for decades and expect a spotless democracy to be made faster than ramen noodles. Every democracy takes decades to grow, including the mess our country was in it's first few years, complete with revolts and a civil war with a death toll that was much worse than Iraq's. We have forsaken Iraq once before. Let's not do it again.

It's been raining for about a week, all of my future job possibilities except for a cashier job at Lowe's went down the drain last fall, and now the most powerful female in America is the one holding the whip shown on my left. Needless to say, I think it's safe to say this year is off to a very, very crappy start.

I've decided to go forward with the "Operation Razor" campaign when I get home, and will enlist the support of some of my old friends of a certain hated student organization (the one that had a dozen of its posters on campus set ON FIRE a few years ago: http://www.asuherald.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=9dc430c5-d0a1-4fab-ae14-fea19f3b97c7 ).

We'll probably do our old throw-fliers-and-posters-onto-everything-over-a-mile-radius technique. I'm pretty sure I am going to go through with having a flag signing at the Arkansas Sportshow if I can get some sort of permission. Wish me luck.

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but it's kind of hard to come up with interesting news after Saddam's hanging...
As I am about to leave January 26th, people have apparently already given my family and Laura gifts, and thank you everyone that have. Best yet, the birthday gifts still haven't came in yet(that's on Feb 1st by the way), so I have more to look forward too. Oh ya, the Arkansas Sports Show will be happening while I'm on leave too, so rock on. I'm seriously thinking of doing publicity for camels, sand and stuff by having a flag for everyone to sign. Even though I'm not sure the folks there would like me not being a vendor, I could always use the "are you not supporting the troops?" card, which is priceless. Hey, while I'm stuck here, I might want to have the few benefits of the job. Look for me there, maybe I'll work something out.

P.S.-some of you may have heard what happened to a soldier that was from NEA(who WASN'T from the 875th, just to clarify)... You can go to http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=5919457 for more.