A soldier's family speaks out ...

Merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, joyous Kwanzaa, happy Festivus and a gibbous Cephalopodmas!

Perusing the paper this morning, still in recovery from that annual food-and-booze induced holiday stupor, I came across a potent opinion piece in the Washington Post penned by one Emily Miller, a member of Military Families Speak Out whose brother is serving in Iraq. She's neither shrill, nor does she pull her punches …

My brother told me that he takes his oath to defend the Constitution seriously and that he will fight and die if necessary to honor his commitment. When I asked him if he would be offended if I participated in activities opposing the war, he replied that it was not only my right but my obligation, and the obligation of all civilians opposing this war, to try to change bad policy. "Give us good wars to fight," he said. […]

For the record, he believes that the war on terrorism is necessary to deal with real threats facing the United States. He is not convinced of what Iraq has to do with the matter, which puts him fairly well in the mainstream of American opinion.

So it is terribly upsetting to me to hear that some people despair that there is "no point" to their soldier's death or wounding in the Iraq war. America does not have to be right in order for our soldiers' service to have meaning.