AS I SEE IT...

My son is home from Iraq on R&R

My son, of whom I am most certainly proud, arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana from Iraq yesterday afternoon. He has 15 days before he has to return to Iraq. He seemed taller than before he left. He is certainly leaner. He is somehow different, not necessarily better or worse, just different. Time will tell...

The Lafayette airport is small, and quaint compared to major airports. There was a small force of five or six men in police uniforms, unarmed, who seemed to be guarding the covered area around the main entrance. I felt lucky that they were nice to me.

Jon has been in combat for nearly nine months now, and I promised myself not to ask him any direct questions about his combat duties.

First let me tell you he left Iraq, flew to Kuwait, from there to Germany, then to Iceland, on to Canada, then to Dallas, to Houston, then finally arriving in Lafayette some forty hours after his trip home began - he arrived close to home. Seems like a very long way around to me...

I am not going to go into much detail, but from what I have heard from my son already... Iraq IS another Vietnam.

We are being deceived. We are kidding ourselves if we believe that our troops are winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Ladies and gentlemen our troops are fighting a war against an enemy that is impossible to identify. American soldiers have rules of engagement; they are not fighting an organized, uniformed army of men such as themselves.

Maybe mainstream media reporters and journalist think they are protecting us common, everyday folk, or maybe the media is under some kind of Presidential or Corporate orders, either way, I know now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, we are being lied to by our government officials and the American media.

Then there is the remote possiblility that the high and mighties - Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., really have no idea of what is really going on. It is slightly possible, due to the fact that they value money and power more than people. And none of the aforementioned have served true active duty in any other arena other than the corporate or political arenas.

What I've heard my son say is almost unbelievable, but he has video. He also has never been overly imaginative, so his graphic descriptions are not merely figments of his imagination.

In my silence I've learned more than I wanted to know, more than I needed to know.

My son is nothing more than a common foot soldier - a grunt.

My husband served for over thirty years, and he has assured me that Military personnel are not allowed to have an opinion, and if my son did there is not a single solitary soul in the American Army that wants to hear it if it varies in the slightest from the officially sanctioned opinion.

For nine months my son has been telling me, "I'm good" when I ask how he is during our phone conversations. I never quite believed him, now I know that "I'm good" is the officially answer to the question, "How are you?"

I am comforting myself in the knowledge that my son is under orders. It is his job to follow orders. He took an oath. He swore to do as he was told. My son is legally military property.

My mind is reeling with the ugliness of what he has described so far. The ugliness in Iraq is his reality, but not of his making.

I want my son to survive these events, and hopefully endure until his required military service time is over.

My son explained it to me like this... "There are 212 ways to be a soldier, and 211 ways to support the Infantry."

What is going on in Iraq is all about the Infantry, who are supported in their ground assaults by the Air Force.

And if you didn't know it before, know it now, "There is a Civil War" going on in Iraq at this very moment. The three divisons of the people living in Iraq are killing each other by the hundreds in the name of Religion.

Somebody tell me again why we are in Iraq, because after listening to my son for the last twenty-four hours I can no longer remember anything that can justify the American occupation of Iraq.

At this very moment, and with good reason, I believe with my whole heart and soul America NEEDS to get out of Iraq. If they choose to continue to kill each other, we can forward the unused body bags from New Orleans.