From my Email

I want to thank you all for the cards, letters, goodie boxes, emails, and especially the prayers. It helped the time go quickly and safely. One thing you can always be assured of is that America's military is the best ever. They have been tasked to do missions over and above what they are trained for and have accomplished them well. Never confuse what they have accomplished with the politics that will skew things depending on which way the wind is blowing

The above is from my cousin who is almost at the end of his 2nd tour in Iraq. I thought I would share his thoughts with y'all. I am not presumptuous enough to assume we all feel the same about the war. I do think we all want our troops and all other personnel to return home safely. I also think there are enough among us who are realistic/pragmatic/cynical enough to wholeheartedly endorse the truth in his last statement.

I will readily admit my lack of knowledge about WWI. I know more about WWII. The Korean Conflict? Lots of politics involved there, right? Vietnam, don't even get me started... Persian Gulf I, again just think about what we could have done if the politicians hadn't stopped the soldiers.

I guess I'm ambivalent about letting politicians direct our military. I know the framers of the Constitution were wise to set limits on the power of the Army and other fighting forces. But when politicians, bowing to the pressures of the disaffected masses who have become bored with a war, pull troops or cut funding, it just ticks me off.

The American public has become far too malleable under the influence of a biased media in today's climate. If I want war news, I go to milblogs. I no longer trust the MSM. All they report is one side of the war, the bleak side. I would rather hear from guys who are THERE. Not reporters, but the guys humping the weapons, flying the choppers and doing the surgery, riding in the HMMVs. By reading their blogs, I can get an idea of what it's actually like in diferent areas. I miss Dr. Chris' blog from Balad. And I'll miss Mel's letter's from Baghdad. But there are always more blogs to discover out there.

I just wish there was a way to keep the politicians from mucking up the gains our soldier's [generic term, I don't mean to denigrate the contributions of any other Branch] have made and bled for. It's wasteful and disrespectful for vote-whores to make light of what our military heroes have sacrificed so dearly to gain.