What Do You See?
If you are like most people you will normally see the good before you see the evil! Sometimes what we see in black and white is not what it really seems after all. Probably some of you thought you saw a heart and the head of something from Jurassic Park! Today I want to take you on an adventure of seeing life as it really is for most of us. Hang on for an exciting post that I hope will generate some discussion.
Time to decipher fact from fiction:
Okay, we hear so many stories and don't know what to believe most of the time on so many issues with life. We tend to fall back on what we know to be true; however, what we know is it really true? Is it love or infatuation? Are we really free or suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Did you really give to charity for a good cause or funded a terrorist organization? Is that a real church or a cult? Are we fighting for oil, economic stability, peace and happiness or fighting for our lives in a real Holy War that we don't understand? Are our kids getting a real education or being sold on false information about the real world? Are we teaching our kids to handle disappointments or take it out with anger and violence? Are the products we use really safe for us or killing us to make someone a hefty profit? Are we spurring our economy or breaking our economy?
Now I have your interest you have some food for thought! I will try to help us see the facts and will require your help. Maybe you will see something I haven't seen or in a different light.
Time for my real-life story to validate a point on what are we really seeing.
What I have to share is not easy and lives with me every day. I was posted in a tower on the base perimeter to observe the city, surrounding a part of the base in Iraq. A car parked on side of the road as if broken down and the men sat facing down the road. They were approximately 250 meters in front of my location at a major intersection. It was just before dusk when this took place. A UN convoy was approaching the intersection as I intently observed the car. The three men seemed nervous and sat still for the convoy to pass. I had called in the suspicious vehicle and advised to keep my eyes on them. It was common for cars to break down or wait on the side of the road for a guy to walk over with jugs of fuel to sell.
A few minutes passed and then the guy in the back seat began moving around. The other two just sat in the car talking. Then the back seat passenger opened the passenger side door, away from me and on the curb side and remained in the car. The height of the curb met with the bottom level of the car. My view was obscured. Soon the man sat up and got still with the other men facing forward. I looked towards the intersection to see another convoy approaching. This time it was a US Army patrol. I intently focused on the vehicle and was calling in the situation to my control to relay to the US Army. It was nerve racking. I was positioned and ready to take a shot at any sign I had of hostility. The patrol passed and nothing happened.
About 20 minutes passed when I noticed a van pull up and two men got out and greeted the three men in the car. They hooked up a tow strap to the car and pulled it away. I was trying to put everything I was observing together, when it dawned on me. Hey, they never once checked the hood of the vehicle. They never walked around the vehicle. They were nervous and never looked around, except to check their mirrors. The guy in the back seat kept moving around, and ducking up and down. They were not broke down they were setting the vehicle up as a VBIED. Why did they only have the back passenger door open? I relayed my concerns and getting a patrol to respond was taking forever. The vehicle was towed away and 45 minutes had passed.
The sun sat and now it was all dark. Hour and a half later my phone rang in my tower. Control was congratulating me on being spot on with my azimuth and range of where the incident occurred. They then told me EOD had been to the site and discovered a 500 pound bomb (IED) set up on the side of the curb where the car had been parked. It was wired to remote detonate. They congratulated me on saving several lives that day and my own. Messed up, I sat for over two hours, with a bomb in front of me large enough to take me out too.
The next day my troops were posted in towers along the perimeter next to the city, when our world got rocked. I was walking to the dinning facility when that side of the city was exploding. Non of my troops were hurt, and one of my troops was wearing his salad, as he was knocked to the back wall of his tower. Another one of my troops was posted on a roof top when a second VBIED went off and shrapnel was falling all around him from a steak bed truck. The car I had seen was the first VBIED that went off and took out the Iraqi Police Station. That day 29 people were killed.
If only I was sure at the time they were up to no good and had sound proof for the okay, I could have taken them all out and prevented the devastation. Two of my troops now are discharged for PTSD. Maybe I should have kept this to myself.
You see, it appeared to be a normal break down on the side of the road. Something we see every day and think nothing otherwise. That is what we are lead to believe. In reality we are being deceived. At what cost are we being deceived?
Take Away:
Today, think about our economy and think about the questions I have posed for you and let's look at what we know to be good for us, or is it actually that good. Some things really need to be looked at and we can make the difference in our own lives and the lives of others.
I realize this post is long...will keep them shorter. Look forward to your comments! God bless!
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