Mike,

I am keeping several options on the table for my short-term (1 to 2 years) future endeavors. One of those options includes going back into the Army. My desire to return has zero to do with the payoff for our efforts in Iraq, A'Stan, or elsewhere. For me, it is due to two factors:
1) I enjoyed working with other Soldiers far more than I think I will enjoy working with civilians.
2) I found satisfaction in helping the indigenous people where I deployed. I don't mean that I helped them by being a cog in the machine that implements our military strategy. I mean that I could choose to treat people like "civilians on the battlefield" or I could treat them like I would want to be treated if our roles were reversed. I chose the latter and it was rewarding.

I got out of the Army because I, like you, do not do garrison. It was not so much that I separated due to low job satisfaction so much as it was due to the fact that I did not see how I could perform at an acceptable level if I hated every minute of the job.

By process of elimination, I do not do strategy or garrison, which means that I do field at the tactical or operational level. Well, I'll add this to the mix: I don't do operational either. That said, the civilian alternative is far, far less exciting. After seeing how mind-numbingly boring the alternative is, I'm open to the prospect of enduring the soul-crushing, thankless, often worthless, tedious existence of a staff officer if it means that I might, if I'm fortunate, get to command Soldiers for one year out of five. The stark comparison of civilian vs Soldier has helped me to appreciate that even a staff job isn't as bad as I thought it was. With this perspective, I think I might be able to perform it better, so I am considering a return.

As for long-term, how does this end? I frankly think it is irrelevant. I think a more important question is: what are we defending? As I have watched the financial "disaster" unfold, and learn about just how widespread and pervasive the unethical, immoral, and flat-out illegal behavior was throughout all organizations involved (from the top to bottom); as I watch our response to it in the halls of government, with nothing but coldly-calculated moves by politicians to engage in CYA and ensure their own re-elections and enrich their contributors and future employers; and as I observe our society's continued slouch towards Gomorrah (don't read too much into me appropriating that book title), I really don't know what we are defending. Until I can answer that question, I can't see any relevance to the question of "to what end" or "how does it end" or anything similar. I am very pessimistic about our future - not due to economics or security, so much as due to the depravity of our society and the entrenchment of a class of people who have a lot of power and no morals.

I've never considered myself to be selfish, so it seems weird to look at this selfishly. But if I were to look at it selflessly, I would need to ask whom I am serving and what for. I can't answer it. So I am left asking what line of work I will enjoy more. I like working with Soldiers and deploying with the line units. Long response short: I guess I don't care how it ends, so long as I can participate and execute my piece of the fight to the best of my ability. It beats a 9 to 5 job.

Ugh. I didn't intend to type that much initially.