I Died For What?

“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”

Yet I trudge wearily along a sandy street in this God forsaken country. The oppressive heat saps the strength, especially when one is laden with combat gear - helmet, flak vest, ammo. My weapon at the ready, I have no question as to the identity of the enemy. He, or even she, may hold the ideology or religious belief of Sunni, Shite or even the insurgent, but whomever points their weapon at me is the enemy . Do I hold as truth the propagandist belief that I am here to create democracy in this war torn land? No, I’m here to survive until my rotation day. I cradle my weapon tighter, closer for I know not what awaits as the enemy lurks silently in every nook and cranny.

Did I hear a shot ring out? Perhaps, but almost instantaneously I suffer a mortal wound as the unseen projectile finds its mark and rips through my throat. My jugular pierced, blood cascades from my body like flood waters raging through a levee. No words come to pass. No scream for a medic - at least not from me. Had I died before I fell to the ground? God only knows.

“Bring ‘Em On”

I looked over at my driver. A young lad of twenty, a hardware store clerk in civilian life, not much younger than I. But he looked much older as he drove along, his eyes intensely focused on the road ahead, his hands gripping the steering wheel as if he held it in a strangle hold. Sweat not merely dripped, but poured from his brow. His pale face might have seen a ghost or maybe knew that one was out there.

Suddenly the RPG’s lit up the terrain and we became the little bears sporting the bulls eye in the carnival arcade. The hardware store clerk swerved to his right to avoid the incoming missiles and ran over the booby trap hidden along side the road. The initial explosion was deafening. Imagine a little red wagon precariously perched on the rim of a volcano at the moment of eruption. The undercarriage of the vehicle exploded upwards forming thousands of hunks of shrapnel, large and small. The searing metal mixes with fragments of flesh and bone. The acrid putrid smell of burning flesh chars my nostrils. All the while, the relentless attack of the enemy continues until we are no more.

And the military brass, safe in their operation centers miles away, continue to send the brave men and women into harm’s way without a viable plan of attack. The suits ten thousand miles away continue to paint a rosy picture of victory.

The American death toll continues to rise

Selective Journalism

A young, female, college student goes missing amid the local Cinco de Mayo festivities. The local media jumps on the story with insinuations of foul play as the girl was last seen with strangers foreign to her element. Possibly a neighborhood Natalie Holloway theme.

Fast forward to later the next day when the girl is found safe and uninjured in the area where she disappeared. Just a short blurb in the local paper, but I must have missed the TV coverage while making a sandwich. We are definitely grateful to God that the story had a happy ending. However, I feel that the media may have been a bit blunted by the lack of a sensationalist story. In other words: no harm, no foul.

Which comes first, “the chicken or the egg”? Does the media only devote its time and effort to reporting the horrific for the sake of ratings? Or do we as a general public thrive on the sensationalism, thereby encouraging the media to satiate our base needs?

You Got (Scam) Mail

The effectiveness of a scam artist is measured by his success at exploiting a human frailty - greed. An individual faced with the opportunity to make a fast buck might throw all logic and reason to the wind depending on the state of mind in which an offer is received. While old scams, such as the Nigerian “let me put millions in your bank account for the mere pittance of a couple thousand dollars in earnest money” still attract takers, new and improved schemes to part a fool from his money pop up every day.

So after a hard day at the office, I retrieved my mail from the box. Two letters caught my eye. Not because of the envelope, but instead the bright yellow postage stamps in the upper right corner. Never saw them issued at the post office. Later that night I gave a closer inspection. Strange, they were Canadian yet the return addresses were from the United States.
I opened the first letter and imagine my surprise when a check in the amount of $3,650.00 fell to the table. Eureka!!! Jackpot!!! New car!!!! Steak dinner!!!! Then I read the accompanying letter replete with grammatical and spelling errors. I had won a lottery. $125,000 was all mine. The attached check was to provide an advance for associated service charges and local capital gains taxes. Local capital gains taxes? How odd. Oh, but they are talking about Canada. Of course confidentiality of information was important to avoid any breaches of security.

However, the check would not be valid until I contacted Karen or Frank at 1-416-507-2489 Ext 1. Now the plot thickens. Letterhead reads Atlantic Financial Corporation, Resource Management and Payment Centre, 390 Parkdale Ave.., Ottawa, Ontario. The check is drawn on the Bank of America, South Portland, Maine. The check is in the name of A L Corporation, PO Box 29048, New York, NY 10029. While 416 is a Canadian area code, it is not that of Ottawa. Seems to be an awful lot of deception there.

The next envelope proved to be even more lucrative. This check was in fact a Cashier’s Check drawn on the Clarke County State Bank, Osceola, IA. for $4,982.00. All that was expected of me was to complete some shopping duties for: Shopping Jobs Here Agency, Suite 1200, 573 Simcoe St., Beaverton, ON CANADA.

Easy enough. I would be paid $600.00 for making a $50.00 purchase at Wal~Mart; $40.00 at the Gap; a Western Union transfer for $2620.00 and the accompanying service charge of $139.00; a Money Gram transfer of $1458.00 with a service charge of $75.00. Seems simple enough. Once I deposit the check and start all the transactions, I’ll be an easy $600.00 ahead. Except for one minor detail. FDIC Special Alert, SA 67-2007 notes theses checks to be counterfeit.

These offers were proposed in very early March. The FDIC alert came out a few weeks later. Although I didn’t take the bait, I wonder how many did. Like computer viruses, new scam schemes are devised daily.

Be careful out there.