I am not a happy person right now. I have never been in favor of the mess our country has been involved in creating over in Iraq since the very beginning. No, I did not believe that despot of a ruler who held the ountry under dictatorial rule should have been left in power. But I also did not believe that we, as a nation, had the right to use our laws and our power to depose of such a person without being requested to do so. We were not petitioned by the people of Iraq to help them, yet our troops were sent, nay were illegally ordered, to wipe out the leadership of that country. The more our troops have tried to help, especially since the formation of a new goverment was begun, the more violent the aftermath has became. In spite of the "war" being declared "over," our troops continue to be attacked, harrassed, jeered, and tortured. Because that "madman" who declared this illegal war has chosen to dictate the laws by which he will agree to wtihdraw the troops he illegally sent in to that country, he continues to excite rebellion against us.

So it became necessary that on Thursday, March 6, 2008, Rosie and I ended up going to Westfield, Massachusetts to be with Wendy to see our new son-in-law off to begin a tour of duty in Iraq. You see, Doug is a reservist in a Massachusetts Air National Guard Reserve Unit. His unit has been called up to active duty, and on March14 will be assuming responsibility for the protection of one of the US airfields in Bagdad. We especially did not want Wendy to have to drive back home alone after Doug's departure.

Just the thought of the six months of separation that this active duty call will necessitate has been a strain on both of them over the past few months. First, their wedding nearly got postponed when an initial call-up was announced around May of 2007, but that call-up announcement was premature. So the wedding when on as planned. But within weeks after the wedding, the call-up was re-issued, with a date set for the beginning of 2008. The struggles that both Wendy and Doug endured before they met and found their friendship, were now being brought back to memory, making the anticipation of separation all that more painful. The mystery enshrouding the actual departure date added to the aggrevation. It was not until the day before the actual departure date that they were notified when they would be leaving. And all for duty that I believe is unwarranted. In fact, I would call it forced illegal action. Our young men and women who have chosen to accept responsibility for military duty are being sent by a person I refer to as nothing more than a common murderer, to a country where we are not wanted to do his illegal bidding against a people who never asked for our intervention.

So now we wait. And we pray. We wait for that first message that the unit has arrived safely. And we pray some more. We wait for each new message, each new e-mail, anything, just to know that Doug and his buddies are O.K. Every time the phone rings, our hearts will skip a beat, until we know it isn't the news we don't want to hear, and then we will pray again.. And we wait for the best news of all -- that they are safely on their way home; then we will pray once more, this time with tears of joy.