Thomas Billis; In my grief--I lost my only son in Iraq in 2005--I look for ways to pull myself out of some of the most deepest mental ditches that you can only possibly imagine. I appreciate humor to make me stop thinking about my loss, which after nearly 2 years I still constantly do.  I thank you for writing back; I thank you for your humor. Anything to help me not go absolutely apeshit.
Iraq is a direct tragedy to 3700+ American families and probably hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ones too. My previous quick come back to you, which I regret my tone, comes from the simple fact that this war has also destroyed the moral fabric of my beloved America. An America that I taught my son to love too. I find no laughing matter in anything about the Iraq War. My America is gone, its replaced by an unrecognizable tyrancy “lead” by two men that I consider worthy of indictment for murder.
I’m sorry to you and I’m sorry to anyone who reads this. But, I just can’t understand through my pain and frustration why anybody in this grand country of ours puts up with this shit. Why do the majority of the American people either ignore what’s going on or fail to act by at least telling their representaives in Washington, even minimally, that the war in Iraq is “just not right”? Screw the polls, go on enjoying prosperity. But isn’t the moral caliber of America worth preserving?

Gold Star Father

I am an Infantry Lieutenant, and I worked my way up from being an Infantry Private.

Funny things happen all the time and they serve to keep us sane.  You may not be able to find any
humor in life if you are are insane. Not the other way around.

Provocative pieces like this, especially in the foreign press, serve to rally many Americans behind their president, even if they themselves judge him to be immmoral, callous and dogmatic.

Forest rangers set back-fires to fight the main conflagration; this is a back-fire that any Carl Rove would love to use, to quell the fire-storm around this administration. Look for more pieces like it to appear, some of which, unfortunately, may be picked up by our progressive press, thus unwittingly and unnecessarily drawing ire upon itself.

If my comment upset Gold Star Father I sincerely apologize.

That was the most comprehensive article I have yet to read on the situation in Iraq.  It shows first, thankfully, that everything Bush is saying isn’t utterly false, and second, just what an incompetent, arrogant, and ignorant decision it was to invade as our government did.  It really makes you wonder when you listen to Cheney descibe back in the ‘90’s what would happen if we invade, just what rationale presided this go-round.  He was right then.  Did he just become drunk with power?  Or is there some catestrophic economic issue that they are afraid to tell us about that made the risks worth sacrifice. We all know that the WMD excuse was a hoax, as well as the 9/11 connection.  So I guess in the end it really is just power hungry impearialism, and greed-based capitalism rearing its ugly head.

Thomas Billis: Sir, there’s not one goddamn funny thing about Iraq.

I was struck by one sentence in the article that they are cutting off the fingers of people who smoke.I wonder if it works to stop people from smoking or are they discovering Iraqi’s with nicotine on their toes.A little humor hurts nothing.