Enough About Me, Already

I always had a passion for the Middle East. I never quite knew what to do with that when I was ten years old except write research papers that went way too long but when I heard you could join the military and go study Arabic, I enlisted in the Marines as soon as I could. Sooner, in fact - my parents had to co-sign since I wasn’t 18 yet.

After the Marines, I went to college in Virginia (near the trail town of Front Royal, actually) where I got to read a lot of good stuff and also study all the modern and classical languages they had on offer. I also got to do a lot of hiking on and around the AT with Kip, my border collie.

But I hadn’t quite seen my path unfolding. Law? Academia? Do I have a religious vocation? Nothing seemed like it quite fit. Then, a few months before I finished my coursework, a couple of planes were flown into a couple of buildings by a handful of really bad guys in league with a couple of rogue states in the greater Middle East - and everything became clear.

For the next 25 years, I studied and worked on and in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Turkey, Israel and Gaza, and, always from a distance, Iran.

Along the way, I earned a couple of master’s degrees, mastered the Arabic of the Levant, and picked up enough Persian, Dari, Urdu, Hebrew, and Turkish to get by. I developed a healthy mistrust of America’s ability to accurately plan against the second and third order effects of military adventurism. But I retained an optimism that wisely applied American power - and tenacious commitment - really can tip the scales for good in the region.

Most importantly, I learned that while any attempt to gain actual yardage in the Middle East immediately becomes a political football, the real work is in the highly non-partisan work of cleaning up the field after the play.

The fact that most of America’s real diplomatic work is non-partisan gave me a deep respect for the notion of a non-political foreign and civil service. No, it was ever perfectly non-political but it was good enough for me. And so, for 23 years, that’s what I did.

And then, out of the blue, insanely, I was sacked. I don’t fault the goal of retrenchment or right-sizing. I blame the implementation of an inhumane numbers game where every scalp is a point. I blame a green political cadre that is still being played by the deep state.

In the end, I have very little to show but pride for my years of federal service to my country. Nor do I have many political allies. I’m no liberal but I’m not MAGA either. I don’t want to usher in a theocracy, I don’t believe the Jews are behind everything wrong in the world, and I still believe in the rule of law and the ideals of our founding. Whatever conservative means in today’s world, the above is apparently more than enough to exclude me from it.

So I look forward to a mountain sojourn. I look forward to getting to hike with just plain Americans in the months ahead. I have the opportunity to hike the AT at least seven years younger and more vigorous than I was planning to be. I will be an older guy but I won’t be an old guy. That is a blessing of all this.

And really, I have a lot of blessings. I have a ruby of a wife who is wise enough to see the value in my hike and whose talents allow her to see us through this Farblondjet. I have a son who has earned a free ticket to a promising college through academic test scores that were blind to his 4.0 GPA, his three varsity letters, class office, and genuinely prodigious classical and vernacular musicianship. I have three vital and disarmingly determined daughters who are being educated without compromise or concession to the educational and moral wasteland around us. I also have a great enduro bike for riding when I get back, enough books and musical instruments to occupy my mind for the rest of my years, and an Aussie Shepherd who loves to hike as long as it’s not too hot. A lot of men are perfectly happy without half of that.