[cyborg]

BTW, are you going back to Iraq again? Or are you home for a while? I gather some people's opinions would be different if they were over there. Did you post about the latest beheading today?

[Long Cut]

I'm home now. Actually, I'm stationed far from my home. My family will be moving up here in the Fall.

Outside of a few quick visits, which were strewn with grief over an illness and a family death, I will have spent over a year separated from my wife and baby.

I'll be deploying again in the Summer of next year, and as yet, we don't know to where.

I didn't get to Iraq last time, but some of our guys did. I asked to go, but they kept me in the Med hunting weapons smugglers. Some other stuff I can't talk about, too. It wasn't the safest missions, though.

I actually SAW the beheading, as I did those of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl. The videos are available.

It's one of the reasons I have NO tolerance for those who slam and deride this country. Whenever I see something as soul-cauterizing as that, and the other things I've seen, I cannot stop thinking that those people, regardless of where they came from or what their beliefs were, are my brothers. I felt the same way on 9-11.

There are those who pick and choose which part of America they like, and enjoy hating the rest. I DISAGREE with the Left, but I'll give my life to defend THEIR freedom and Liberty the same as I would ANY countryman. I can wish for and work for their political defeat without wishing for their horrible deaths and those of other Americans.

[Long Cut]

You know, I missed my son's first words, and his first steps. I've missed time with him and his mother I'll never get back. I've spent almost a year of lonely, worried nights missing them and wondering when or if I'd see them again. I've lived in horrible conditions, eaten food you'd throw away, and endured enough stress that the nighmares still return, from time to time.

What makes it WORTH IT is the knowledge that it is for the highest of causes...the defense of this country, the greatest ever. That knowlege gives me the strength and endurance to go on in the most dire circumstances. That, and the personal Honor which I carry with me every day of my life.

I'll be DAMNED if I'll sit by while some Bible-banger OR Lefite maniac derides all that I and millions of others have done by deriding the very nation we have done it for.