Friday, February 23, 2007

Long Iraq Tours Can Make Home a Trying Front
Then, in November, his machine gun malfunctioned during a firefight, wounding him in the groin and ravaging his left leg. When his wife reached him by phone after an operation in Germany, Corporal Callahan could barely hear her. Her boyfriend was shouting too loudly in the background.

“Haven’t you told him it’s over?” Corporal Callahan, 42, recalled the man saying. “That you aren’t wearing his wedding ring anymore?”

[...]

“Since my husband has been gone, I have potty-trained two kids, my oldest started preschool, a kid learned to walk and talk, plus the baby is not sleeping that well,” said Lori Jorgenson, 30, whose husband, a captain in the Minnesota National Guard, has been deployed since November 2005 and recently had his tour extended another four months. “I am very burnt out.”

Same questions as yesterday.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Iraq Insurgents Employ Chlorine in Bomb Attacks

Colonel Garver said that the chemical attacks could soon appear again. “It’s no surprise that anti-Iraqi forces or terrorists or whoever is doing this are trying to replicate this kind of attack,” he said. “They perceive that it’s working.”

Emphasis added.

What are we doing there? Who is the enemy? Why does our policy in Iraq involve only the military? What good can our troops accomplish? Why is it in America's interest to occupy a Middle Eastern country? When will our occupation end, and why can we not end it now? Who are we to destroy a country in the name of bringing them democracy?

Why are the questions from 2003 the same questions as now, in 2007?