Free Republic

he night before her son left for Kuwait, Ruth Aitken argued with him on the telephone for nearly three hours. From her living room in State College, Pa., she told him that a war with Iraq made no sense, that it was really a scuffle over oil. Her son, an Army captain based at Fort Stewart, Ga., countered that America needed to be protected from terrorists. "Mother," he finally told her, "it's my job." The argument — a "major confrontation" in Ms. Aitken's memory — was by no means their first debate over the war, but it was their last....

Miyuki Cawley, the wife of U.S. Marine Staff Sgt James Cawley, holds the flag from her husband's casket in her lap during graveside services at the Roy City Cemetery Thursday, April 10, 2003 in Roy, Utah. Cawley died March 29, 2003 while serving in Iraq and also was a member of the Salt Lake City police force. Bishop Jaime Soto is shown Friday, April 11, 2003, at St. Joaquim Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, Calif., at the funeral of U.S. Marine Cpl. Jose A. Garibay, shown in foreground. Garibay was killed March 23, 2003, after encountering Iraqi troops near...

Before I became a radio talk show host and television news commentator, I was a talk show guest. Once, while on a top rated talk show, the show host blithely insulted me with a question "super Americans" always ask of people born outside the United States but, of course, forget to ask the Timothy McVeighs of the country. It is a question no one asks of Irish or Italian or British or Canadian Americans. It seems the question is reserved for Hispanics and people who might have some affinity for Israel. "If Mexico (the country of my birth) and the...