This Preisdent has had the greatest burden of any President since FDR and he has done a great job. I think that the libs better start providing answers instead of pop culture platitudes or it is going to be a long road for them in 08.

God bless you and your son. I am well aware that I am safe because of people like him.

My day brightened a bit reading the above link.

Via Instapundit:

"Army Recruitment/Re-enlistment Levels

First time enlistments are running a bit behind, another product of a burgeoning economy, but re-enlistments, even from soldiers in combat zones, are running ahead of expectations.

What does it mean when the guys in the thick of it, closest to the action, at risk, on the ground and looking at things with their own eyes, decide to stay for another hitch?

They must believe in what they're doing.

Apparently, they haven't been able to watch the news and don't realize just how miserably they are failing. Unaided by the editors and gatekeepers of the MSM, they're left with seeing the results of their efforts with their own eyes. They see the new schools, the new sewers, the clean drinking water, the new voters, the new government; they see the birth of freedom taking place right in front of them and think they are doing some good.

Poor deluded bastards.

Just wait till they get back and Ted Rall and Molly Ivins and the rest of the harpies show them how all along they've been raping and pillaging and repressing the Iraqis. They'll be devastated to learn the truth, won't they?

Or maybe they'll just kick some more butt and speak the real truth to power."

Kind of funny how this "impressive" young man impresses you as a dupe with no free will, as though unseen forces pushed him and his peers to that uniform and that commitment to duty, honor, country.

I really grow recentful of the implication that our military is full of infantile zombies who were tricked into attendence.

My nephew, 1/2 Palestinian, joined the Navy a year ago in September. He is a brilliant young man, "A" student, musically and mathematically gifted, could have made a number of choices. He chose the Navy.

My son intends to follow his lead this fall. Personally, I would rather he change his mind. I'd rather him go to college or even go to college first THEN join a la NROTC. But I don't think he will. He's thought it through. He's weighed the options. He's analyzed his motivations for joining and he still wants to join. He wants to serve the Navy first for 4 years, then go to college. He's my only child so you can imagine how badly I'd rather he not join. But I've discussed this with him thoroughly and I accept that he's made a reasoned decision.

These young men aren't idiots or dupes. They are patriots who believe in serving their nation and achieving some purpose in their lives.

Reading how you think that Marine is foolish enough to be "stuck" anywhere put a major downer in my morning.

It's almost as though you think you have all the answers and the rest of us a pitiable idiots.

But you wouldn't be so arrogant as to think THAT, would you?

L

Bush isn't afraid to face his critics- it's just that they're usually nut-jobs (reference Sheehan, Moore, Kennedy, etc.)

So now it's not "your uncle" or "this guy you know", but some guy you don't even know, at a car wash, who didn't even say anything to you, that "makes" you feel this way?

Here's a newsflash- A greater percentage of the military supports the President and the war effort than a proportional cross section of society. So now YOU know more than they do, with all of YOUR military experience and all...?

I was at the car wash today, saw a Marine waiting for his car. He was a recruiting poster Marine, really a very impressive young man. Thinking of his fellows, stuck in Bush's folly in Iraq put a major downer on my afternoon.