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i know someone that died in iraq.

i'd only met ryan a couple times. he's the fiance of one of carla's best friends from college.

he died in an explosion on wednesday.

this is the first time that i have directly known someone that has died in war.

watching reports of iraq on the tv or reading it in the papers, it doesn't quite hit home.

we're so sheltered from the violence and atrocities that happen over there on a daily basis.

the daily show and the like uses humor to present it to us. the 24 hours news channels don't even devote that much time to covering it anymore.

politicians bicker over how to fund/end/win it.

i was opposed to the iraq war from the beginning. i knew that we wouldn't get out of there for years and years. but my voice doesn't count for much in the grand scheme of things.

but now, i'm even angrier than before. people's lives that i know have been destroyed. how do i even comfort them? how do i help carla comfort her friend?

God, it sounds sad to me that it takes this horror hitting close to home for me to become enraged again about my government, my nation fighting in a war that i never wanted.

but it did.

i had keeping carla happy to worry about. i had my job transferring me across the country to worry about. i had my crohn's to worry about. i had my life to worry about.

but now, i'm just happy that the ones i love and care about are here in america. here where they can worry about congress raising the minimum wage or how much trans fats they are eating.

i'm sad more than anything when i think about ryan's family and friends. what do they do? how long are they going to grieve? months? years? forever?

i'm just sad.