Things Fall Apart

BELLINDA (9:27:55 AM) See, you are knee deep in psychology and sociology there

BELLINDA (9:28:08 AM) You thought you had it bad at home!!!

BLAKE (9:28:20 AM) Yes I am

BLAKE (9:28:25 AM) You are rubbing off on me

Russell, 35, died July 22 from an explosion while investigating a munitions cache outside Baghdad. He was on his second tour.

Army Maj. David G. Taylor Jr.
Aug. 9, Baghdad (journal for his newborn son)

It occurred to me again that I don't know how old you'll be when you read this. It wouldn't do to write things an 18-year-old might understand if you read this when you're five. I think I'll assume you're young when you read this. Anything you don't understand, we can talk about when you're older.

That was on my mind the other night when I was sitting in my HMMWV [Humvee] on a street in Baghdad, waiting for one of our companies to raid a suspected militia warehouse. It's a bad part of town. It was 0300, I was tired, and I started thinking of some of the more complicated aspects of this fight here.