My father called last night and dropped a bomb on me:  he is leaving for Kuwait on Friday or Saturday to work.  You might ask what branch of the military my father is in?  He’s in Cheney’s branch, the Halliburton branch.  Yep, my father is going to Kuwait to help Halliburton reap the rewards of war.  I guess that’s what petroleum engineers do, work for war profiteers.  I can’t even begin to tell you how insane I think he is.  In my mind, it is not a question of if he’ll be killed, but when.  I can only hope he can come home a few times first.  (He’ll work 35 days in Kuwait, then be home for 35ish days-they usually short change him on the time off.)  This is not the first time my father’s plans for work have made me cry.  He’s been doing the rotation thing for a few years now, going to Siberia for 28 days and then returning for 28 days.  That’s all been for Halliburton too, (excepting a small stint for another crazy company where he had to get a Russian interpreter to help get him a ticket out of the country it was so bad).  But last year in January Halliburton gave him the chance to work in Russia full-time and he took it.  My Mother was to follow him once she was done teaching in June or July.  I was completely floored and generally acted like a baby.  See, I’m very close to my parents and the thought of them living thousands of miles away made me feel like an orphan.  But, trusty Halliburton put the squash on those plans and he was suddenly unemployed again with like 3 days notice.  My parents were very disappointed as they, especially my Mother who has never been out of the country, saw it as a big adventure.  I actually grew to be disappointed for them because I understood why they were so excited.  So my dad was unemployed again for quite a few months until Halliburton hired him back AGAIN for a couple months to go to Russia.  Then again, again with almost no notice, they said they woudn’t be needing him anymore.  Since then they’ve offered him jobs in exciting, safe places like Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.  He turned them down because they were’t rotation based and he wasn’t desperate enough yet, I guess.  Thank goodness they offered him the crown jewel now!  Kuwait.  Yep, Kuwait.  I could understand Russia.  He made great friends who fed him raindeer and vodka and spoke Russian with him, never faulting his nasally Texas drawl.  And I knew that he had people there, especially during September 11th, who would have laid their lives down getting him out.  But Kuwait?  Fucking Kuwait!!!