Chris worries about his little brother going to Iraq & I know that is hard.  Bart my son went to Iraq.  
He joined the Army while Clinton was President and he had no idea how badly misused an army could be.  
I tried to talk him out of it but he was lured by a recruiter selling something I do not understand.

He supported going into Afghanistan to get Bin Laden - he spent a 9 months there during the build up 
towards Iraq.  He wrote bitterly of how screwed up the effort in Afghanistan was because no attention 
was being paid to it.  He was very much against the whole Iraq mis-adventure and the year he spent there 
only confirmed what he felt before he went - we fucked up going in & have no idea how to get out.

So you worry every day, days when he can't e-mail are tense with dread.  You scan the news for stories 
about the area you think he is near.  Every story of soldiers dying causes your stomach to knot - you feel 
relief when you learn it is not your boy & then feel guilty for feeling that way because you know some 
other mom & dad have been devastated.

You try to think of things to send to ease his time or help him make it through (we spent over $1700 for 
things like ceramic plate body armor that the fucking administration couldn't figure out how to provide) 
and wonder how the really poor kids get by when they can't afford the luxury of body armor.

And then he comes home & you think everything is going to be OK, but it isn't - this is not the boy we 
nursed through chicken pox, the kid I taught to play hockey, the smiling stud in the Prom photo.  
This is a profoundly sad and rather angry guy.   He talks little of what he saw & what he did 
and we don't press him it comes out in bits.

I hope Koresh can forgive those bastards in the WH because I know I never will.

Minnesota Mark