Dreaming With Dan

[ Friday, March 21, 2003 ]

 
War update....

Just saw on CNN that the 1st American KIA has happend. KIA stands for killed in action, which it due to enemy fire. It is a Marine that is in the 1st MEU.

Marine Death Toll so far... 5 (1 KIA)
daniel [2:45 AM]

 
War update....

Well... its about the 2nd day of the war. Today a Marine helicopter, CH-46, crashed killing 4 Marines and 8 British soldiers.
On the pics below you can see how Marines and the British troops where sitting prior to the crash. They musta been thrown around like crazy. I hope their deaths were quick and painless.

This pic is of a CH-46

pic below is of a crew chief on a CH-46 ............ Sitting orders inside a CH-46



Marine Death Toll so far... 4

Pics are from the Marine Corps Image archives on the Marine Corps webpage.
daniel [2:43 AM]

[ Wednesday, March 19, 2003 ]

 
Well.... 2 down 1 to go....

Cpl Adam Chang was activated a week ago, he is attatched to the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. Like Cpl Raymond Chung, Adam grew up with us and we went to boot camp together. I wish Adam the best and I hope to get activated soon and meet up with them.

Boot Camp Graduation... Sept 11th 98.... Left to right.... Ray, Adam, Me



daniel [6:30 PM]

 
What is the war all about????
Lotta you people have been askin me why are we going to war... some of you guys are taking sides without all the info. I mean both sides. I belive it is ok for a person to take sides on a conflict once they get the facts straight. My take on this war is undecided.

Situtation : In 1992 when the gulf war ended the US gave saddam a choice. Surrender, back off your troops and dissarm. Just like all other wars we gave Saddam that option. If he agreed he would be able to stay in power of Iraq. The UN inspectors went to Iraq after the war and wanted to inspect the countries arsenal and make sure that all weaponds of mass distruction was gone. This means no chemical, biological or nuke warheads. During the 1st inspections the Iraq government ended up kicking out the instpectors and ended the inspection. The UN and the US had all right to strike Iraq then. But instead the governments tried for the last 12 yrs to disarm him diplomaticaly. Since 911 CNN has reported that Saddam has tried to get nukes. During the last inspection empty warheads have been found and there are hundreds of thousands of chemicals missing from Iraqs arenal. If they where destroyed there is no paper work or evidence that prove it was.

Anti-War supporters : They belive that we are invading Iraq for no reason at all and that we are just taking advantage of 911. That is a very narrow minded view of the situation. They ask for more diplomacy, doesnt 12 yrs of diplomacy mean n e thing? But some of their better points are why now? With N. Korea going on and Alfganistan is still not done yet... why now? Why the US? Why can't the UN do it?

Pro-War supporters : They see that the US has tried to talk to Saddam for the last 12 yrs and there is still no result. Intellegence has pointed all fingers that Saddam still has chemical warheads. If the US doesnt do n e thing it will mean that we can be pushed over and our diplomatic policies can be laughed off. Their is alotta politics and moral obligations for this war. After all we did give Saddam a chance to stay in power but he blew it.

My point of view : some of it has been expressed on this post already. I do not think that the US wants to take over coutries, after all we gave Saddam a chance just as we have Japan a chance of WW2. Japan can keep its government and mosta its land as long as it dissarms its military. Japan complied and since then there hasnt been a military problem with Japan. N. Korea hasnt done n e thing directly to threaten the US so i think that isnt worth military attention just yet. Like some ask why now? well... if not now when? When will it be ok? After Saddam gets his hands on nukes and a war would kill even more ppl? Someone has to make a choice on when, their is no realt right time to do something like this. But the fact is that if we wait too long then more ppl would die when it came to war. Would I like to see hard evidence that he has all this? yes... but maybe they do have it but cant show the public yet. Reason is that if they do have it they dont want Saddam to know that we know where his bombs are.

What is ur take on it now?
daniel [12:39 AM]

[ Monday, March 17, 2003 ]

 
Time and friends

PROBLEM: Mosta ya know me well know that I hang around with 3 main groups of friends. Group one is ALL arcadia ppl.... blaise, scott, robert, ect. group 2 is some arcadia ppl and some other from other places... hsing, chung, jeff, mike, ben ect. and my last group some Marines. How often do I kick it with these ppl? not very.... group one was my closest friends since I was little. Group 2 is bits from middle school, HS and college. We all can figure out group 3. These days I dont see group 1 often at all... like once a month. Group 2 I go to school with but not all of them. Some live closer to me and some dont. We dont see eachother ALL the time. Usually its just me, jack, chung and jeff. We dont do too much either but we live so close to eachother that we go out for little things like dinner, working and washing cars together. So far this yr I have had a lot of things going on. I dont too VERY much big events with friends cuz i dont have the time to and everyone also has their own worries to deal with. Shooting has become a little hobby of some of ours and poker night has started. Sometimes we will go out for a major gathering and thats when we rally up the group.

Now after all this... what is the problem? There are ppl that feel as if I am ignoring them and planning things without them. Mosta ya guys dont even feel like that and know that if ur ever bored just call the guys up and see what u can run up. Paul for instance is someone that lives close to us but we dont call all the time for dinner and little things. We know that he is busy and if he was bored he'd call us. My old arcadia friends NEVER whinned about this. We would say.. hey lets plan something and get together and do something and we would. Friends doesnt mean that you must see the person and a daily basis. Friends are ppl that care for one another and would be there to talk to and help. But when one decides to cut the lines of communication or decided to pretend that everything is now ok.... well thats just wrong. It makes a honest friendship hard to maintain. PPL need to understand that when other go out and are all friends they can always call if they are bored. We dont ask ppl that live far away for something small like dinner often. Usually just whoever that is just 5 min away. This yr has been a busy yr for me so far. Getting ready for war, school, and getting all my personal effects inorder for delpoyment. I go to base 2 weekends a month now and I do not have time for everyone. I do as I please and I do not control what others do. If something small is planned and ur skipped for a invite... sorry but it's not n e ones fault... its small and if ur bored then just call and see what we are up 2. Big events we DO call and if ur busy everytime there is a larger gathering it isnt n e ones fault. When I thought all this was over I was not pleased to find out that words are still being said and other ppl are getting dragged into this. Make a note that I DO NOT CONTROL WHO AND WHAT other ppl decide to call. Dont take personal affairs to a work place when you share common co-workers. Esp when the other person isnt even me. No one has n e thing to do with what I do. There are no sides. Hell I dont even know what "Daniel's" side is. Those of u that know what Im talking about already know who it is and what im talking about. I dont wanna point out names to the ones that dont know the problem. But one thing needs to be said... I do not treat u differently from n e one else i know. None of them has ever said that I was siding against them and leaving them out. I tired to talk this over once... and I thought it was over. This is my last time to get the point across. U have been busy a few times when we called for something. I can name a few. The range, I invited u and even gave u directions. I didnt ditch u. U didnt get here on time so i called and gave directions. We didnt have time to be late that day cuz there was too many ppl going and just 1 gun. That means that we needed to get there early so everyone can shoot 100 rounds. I called and called and warned u that time was getting close.... if that was a sence of rushing u or whatever... well... sorry if u take it that way. But when I plan something I plan for the group and I take things into consideration. Out time was limited that day. The other times u had other stuff going on and so u turned us down. And to just to let u think alittle more... what about u? I dont think I even got 1 call for an event from u this whole yr, not that I care so much to start n e thing over it. But thats something u needa think about too. U wanna do something? ok... plan it and invite. its that EZ. We are doing the same as we always have done. The problem that we are having right now is a simmilar one to a old korean person we used to talk to "SCREAM" I sided with u cuz he started to talk shit. He always blamed me for not tellin something on time or whatever, when I infact told him a week ahead, planned things around his working hrs. U needa see the pattern that ur making with ppl u know. U live too far for us to always just drive there and do nothing. Esp when eating and everything else is down here. I dont see the guys every day either. But all this talking behind me and holding the grudge needs to end. The guys u r pulling into this are friends of mine since we started growing up. Dont u think that I will find out? please.... they are not taking sides but they are seeing a problem. We used to say that ur young and still learning... but ur getting older now. U can do n e thing u want now. U needa stop being so emotional about stuff. U seem to always have some kinda drama going on and that itself should tell u thing. U have a pattern of problems that always comes up. U needa start thinking about why is that and stop pointing fingers. I have tried to talk and tried to invite but it isnt getting through to u. Im sorry but this is it. I will leave it up to u to decide what u wanna do. I have to get ready for base again soon and my free time is limited. I can spend no more time trying to fix it cuz I dont even know what the problems is or what "side" as u call it that im claiming. U needa either drop it and lose the bitterness or keep it. It's totally up 2 u now, time to make a adult choice. I dont want u to chose to drop it and be freinds if ur not really gonna drop it. If u have questions just ask. We are not treating u different from other ppl. I cant stress that more. All the other arcadia ppl... post on my message on when was the last time u saw me and how often we kick it. PLEASE... This friend of mine needs to understand. The ball is in ur court.
daniel [1:42 AM]

[ Sunday, March 16, 2003 ]

 
WHOAAaaaa.... talk about weird... I dunno if im lucky , unlucky or lucky has nothing to do with it....
Daniel WTF are u talking about?

Well.... mosta ya know about my past.... well lets go ALL the way back to HS. Does Catherine To ring a bell? My first GF.... the one i was with for 2 yrs. Well.... I havent seen her nor her parents since 99, after we broke up, and today I ran into her father. We talked alittle and it turns out that they know a lot obout what is going on with me. They knew about audiocavern, they knew that i gotta new xterra, they knew it was black AND they knew that there was a blue marine corps sticker on the back of it. I was like WTF how did they know but her dad wouldnt tell me. Some of ya prob guess Adam prob told them, well thats what i think also. But it was weird.... Im talkin to the man that caught me in the shower with his daughter, HAHAHAHAHA and after Cat and i broke up he found out that we slept with eachother many of times. Yet he was still kewl with me. Man oh man.... our conversation felt like hrs but it was only like 5 min. Talkin to him brought back some old memories and alittle bit of old feelings. I used to be so tight with that family. Till this day i still dont know if it was a waste or a lesson learned... maybe both... but all in all... i always feared that I would run into one of them one day and today was the day. Atleast it was her dad and not her nor her mom. I still think my past kinda sucked and now I just wonder what the future holds. One thing I can say I have learned from her... NEVER let ur feelings come out to a girl untill ur gettin ready to get married, cuz if it crashes it burns and if too much feelings are invested into it.... it burns for a long time.... maybe even forever but alteast the fire does die down.
daniel [4:33 AM]