STEPHEN, THE NAVY GUY

So, I talked to a young navy guy that just came back from the Middle East. As a navy he is probably in a safer place than the guys that actually go inland. When I asked him whether he landed in Iraq and how was it, he said his unit didn’t landed in Iraq, only 60 miles away, but he went to Bahrain and Kuwait, where “they hate Americans.” When I referred to the 1991 war “Desert Storm” and whether the people from Kuwait probably like us because we freed them back then, he said “Kuwait was horrible”
I assumed he meant they were mistreated, but no, he meant “The weather was horrible, 140 degree, windy and dusty, horrible, horrible…”
However, he loved Thailand where he stayed at the presidential suite of a 5 star hotel for $100 a night! “Could you imagine?” “You don’t get a super 8 hotel room here in San Diego for less than $60 a night!”
“We took elephant rides, massages for 3 hours for pennies, all kind of jewelry, etc.”
His comments let me wondering what all these kids (he is only 23) are doing over there risking their lives for a war they don’t even understand, and when their needs and desires are definitely far from what going to war represents.