I had the oddest run in with a man claiming to be an Iraq war veteran today. I was with one of the assistant mangers running down a few things that needed to get done at work and one of the bread vendors came up and started talking to us. I don't exactly remember how we got on the subject - there was this bit about how his ex ran up some bills he had to pay off before he could go back to Iraq and work security for those corporations like Blackwater - but the conversation got really tense when he started telling us stories about shooting insurgents and children laced with explosives through the head. The whole time he was literally staring me in the face and making me really nervous and I even had to back up a few steps as he was so into it. Eventually, lots of profanity started making its way into the story and while I could grasp the gravity of the story being told I had to wonder if this really was the place for it.

However, that really wasn't the most important question born out of this event. It really made me question if this is how our soldiers are coming back then was starting either of these wars a good idea? Well, the answer to that is pretty obvious… nevermind on that one.

But the biggest shock was the fact he'd want to go back to that, like it was all he ever knew.... but I don't know why having an unpaid debt would keep you from doing that. You'd think they'd take anyone willing to get shot at....

People go through some crazy effing !@#$%^ in the military, and especially on the battlefield. If you're not getting shot at on the battlefield, then you're taking some serious shit from high-strung superiors.

You know all those anime you watch, and video games you play, that feature the anti-hero soldier character who's disillusioned with life and the world, and not just his duty in the military?

Well, that stuff's actually kind of true to reality, but it's only part of it, and in some ways, you could even consider it disrespectful, because it's like a bad parody of the reality.

Remember how irritated you are with the usual stuff in your life. Now imagine having to listen to gunfire and explosions as often as you listen to...whatever else you usually hear, and imagine not being able to eat, sleep, or bathe as often as you currently do.

I know quite a few people who're ex-military, so I hear stories like this all the time. All I can say is, if you're not in the military, and you've never served in the military, then be glad that you were never forced to join up. Because it's a person with an iron set of testicles who'd choose to have themselves subjected to such circumstances.

It's some crazy shit that the military's usually up to - usually something that draws the ire of whatever foreign country we're meddling in - but I can certainly sympathize with the common soldier.

Of course, if you're a mercenary, I don't know how much different it is than life in the military.

I will say, the best thing you could do or could've done is just listen, because it's a hell of a weight that soldiers carry on their backs.

Unless, of course, you're just met a mentally deranged person, who was just pretending that they've been in the military, just because they wanted attention. That's messed up. Like Silent Hill Homecoming messed up.