"Oh, billions of dollars! Is there no dispute you can't settle?"

Jon Stewart says it all:

Hat tip: PunkAss Blog.

Unfair

Please indulge me while I take a moment to be political, dear readers. My cousin P is a Marine. He has done two tours in Iraq. He's had a few close calls over there, and he doesn't agree with the war, or how it's being (mis)handled. Each time he made it back to the States in one piece, we all breathed a sigh of relief. So, the family just found out that he may be called back for a third tour. Apparently the Marines aren't making their new recruit quota (shocker!), so they're calling the inactive marines back.

I am furious for so many reasons, but I don't want this post to be about me. I want it to be about our soldiers, who deserve better than they're getting; I want it to be about the parents of those soldiers, who have to cross their fingers that their children will come home safe.

Instead of talking about my own feelings, I'd like to share the thoughts of P's mother M, who is also my godmother. She wrote a long and emotional email to friends and family after finding out that P may be called to duty any day now. In the early morning hours, unable to sleep, she wrote:

It's without a doubt a moral crisis and our kids going to suffer for what? I think everyone should talk amongst their families and send an email to their respective congressman or woman and senator and state your case for these kids, all our kids.

It's enough. We need to leave and we need to turn our attention to the ones that did survive and need our care and support for their lives. And by the way, they should get the same damn benefits the congress and senate receive. They serve the American people, and our soldiers, Marines, Army, Navy - all our military should get the same top notch medical to take care of them. They are our heroes, they went in good faith and only to find out they have to wait and struggle to wait for medical care? It's disgraceful. So many now have mental and psychiatric issues that cannot be ignored. I have to ask the President, how is this being patriotic?

This whole mess from the beginning did not have a concise plan. I don't want to let my son go. It's wrong, it's immoral, these kids deserve better, they deserve a better president, in fact, they deserve a better "commander in chief" and they still don't have one.

I have promised myself that if my son goes over again I will write to President Bush again, as I have done before, and tell him my thoughts for the day as a mother concered for her son for the 3rd time over in Iraq. Maybe he can send some free food once in awhile, since they are charged for their food whether they eat it or not, and maybe I can remind him the his lovely daughters would be more than welcome serving their country. What citizens could be more proud than their own parents President and Mrs. Barbara Bush? Oh, and before I forget, P's parents will lovingly send him off with all the equipment he needs whatever it costs after the government issue is given out and the rest of the stuff that they REALLY need they won't receive. This has happened two times, and what do you say to a marine heading off to Iraq? 'NO?'...you say, 'whatever you need, you'll have it...'

Funny, we heard the president and Rumsfeld say the same thing 4 years ago and then again a year later and we still had to send $$$ for equipment and supplies that would be more safe than what was government standard issue...but I keep forgetting...the president said we are winning?

CAN SOMEONE DEFINE WHAT WINNING MEANS?

I am so very sad. My heart is heavy...just waiting, waiting, waiting....please write to someone and ask them to stop this and stop it now..

and pray for P and all his Marine brothers. – M

I can't add anything to that. We don't often get to hear from the mothers and fathers who wait and worry. My family is just one more family that's being put in the awful position of keeping our fingers crossed yet again. The parents of our soldiers aren't getting any answers, the American people have been lied to for years, and this war of greed is ruining the lives of Americans and Iraqis who did not seek it.