I was there. Anbar Province, Iraq. It was worth it.

I was there. Anbar Province, Iraq. It was worth it.

I served in Iraq and it WAS worth it. I saw was because many of the gains have since been squandered. We might have had an ally there; if we had finished the job and baby-sat long enough for a true understanding of democracy to take root among the people. In a country where many of the greatest leaders had already been killed by Saddam, corruption is endemic. It's part of the culture. We had a chance to prove to the Iraqis that there is a better way. Having squandered that, I fear that Iraq will never be what it could have been. The native leaders who could have seen that on their own and brought their people along are exiles or dead.

I wasn't in high school that long ago, but the idea of being permitted to go to these parties or being allowed out overnight in the first place just boggles my mind. Even when I had a car, I had to be home well before my parents went to bed--I think midnight on the weekends was only for special occasions like Prom--and there's no way on God's green earth I could've gotten away with getting drunk.

I keep saying it: until the electorate in the US changes, then anything else is irrelevant. Conservatives could come up with the most cunning scheme ever devised by man to block X measure or score Y political point, but it won't change this country one iota. The electorate needs to change, and until they feel some real pain, network TV is just FAR too entertaining for them to get off the couch and get aggravated about the state of the country. Let it burn. It's going to happen and the last thing we need is Republican fingerprints on the wreckage.

The feminists who are pushing women into frontline combat and boxing are the ones who would never in a million years go themselves. Many young women who join the military have no idea that feminists have managed to wrangle them jobs that will put them squarely in the middle of the enemy, and get a nasty--sometimes fatal--shock when they finally deploy. When a feminist says women should be able to do the same jobs as men on the battlefield, she means OTHER WOMEN.