EXCELLENT article from LA Times. Re: Words from Soldiers in Iraq

Some of these comments remind me so much of my husband and a lot of the guys he served with in Iraq.

Just in case I haven't said it today... I despise Bush,this horrible administration, and this unnecessary, tragic "war"!



Dread Takes a Toll on GIs in Iraq
By Louise Roug, Times Staff Writer


FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq — A handful of Delta Company soldiers leaned against a barracks wall the other night, smoking. The subject of conversation: what limb they would rather part with, if they had a choice. On the door of a portable toilet a few feet away, someone was keeping the company death toll amid a scribble of obscenities: five KIA.

"When I first got here, I felt like I could actually do some good for the Iraqi people," Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Barker said. But the last six months had hardened him, he said. "We're not going to change the Iraqis. I don't care how many halal meals we give out," he added, referring to food prepared according to Islamic dietary laws.

Of the 160,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq, some have been deployed to the country for the first time. Others are returning for their second or third tours of duty. Those returning find a country that has become even more dangerous. Since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, attacks on American troops using roadside bombs have steadily risen, as have military casualties.

In conversations with troops in the tense cities of Baghdad, Mosul and Tikrit during the last four weeks, morale seemed a fragile thing, especially among those in the line of fire, shot through with a sense of dread.

<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-morale22nov22,1,3442654.story>

:dem: