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It has nothing to do with not liking 'bad news' or being able to deal with 'contrary opinions.'

It has to do with fundamental support from the mission in Iraq being withdrawn by many posters.

And how much sense does it make to have a son who's a vet and going back, and not look at threads on Iraq? C'mon. That's ridiculous advice.

There has always been dissent and debate, but the majority of freepers have supported the mission. If that has changed, as it has appeared to have done, then FR has indeed lost its support for our troops and those of us with family there need to move on.

But can't we agree that it's reasonable to start worrying about the situation at this point? Our military has been there for three years, and we're now talking about being there for ten more, and the violence gets worse. I've had several friends go through it, and a couple are there now.

It's not our military's fault if they're in a no-win situation. We trained them to do what they did in 2003, which was kick a$$ and take Baghdad, and they did it stunningly well. But our political leaders obviously didn't plan it well enough, and now our military is a perpetual occupying force.

I remember voting for a guy who said this:

"The vice president (Gore) and I have a disagreement about the use of troops. He believes in nation-building. I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place."

That was Bush in 2000. He was also criticizing Clinton for not having an "exit-strategy" in Kosovo. I really liked that guy's foreign policy, after watching Clinton go into Haiti and Kosovo with little or no rationale. I'm disappointed now.