I admire the soldiers for speaking out, for so eloquently adding true voices to the chorus calling for an end to Bush's madness. It's a simple thing for us at home to express outrage but they face consequences for doing so.
I hope for their families' sake that the soldiers' lives were not shortened because of the article. Losing a father, son or brother in war is tough. Losing them in an unjust, ill-planned, badly mismanaged war against people who did not attack us is tougher. But, losing them due to a higher-up's retaliation for speaking their conscience is unimaginable.

newriver,

We're listening to soldiers. Our own. You listen to TV and radio.

Free yourself from it. It's making a fool of you.

I was particularly awed by how intelligent and articulate these soldiers were. Most Americans believe that the volunteer Military is made up of kids who wouldn't possibly have any other choice or future outside of this choice. Maybe that makes it feel like our loss is something less than it is. We need to put some faces and personalities on these soldiers, and this situation seems to be accomplishing just that.

Quit your whining.

According to Congressman Boehner it was a "Small Price" you just paid, Sir.

The problem is, once you hold up your hand, you can have all the feelings you want or whatever,
but you've still agreed to perform military service. And, what's more, you signed a piece of legally binding paper that that's what you'll do for the time you agreed to. If you do anything else besides that, you could be in violation of your contract, and you could even go to jail. Moral of THAT story is: Read the fine print...

The military is what it is, it does what it does, it's not for everyone, and it's not forever, either. And, now that there's volunteers and not conscripts, people can't say they didn't know what they were getting into.
Or, CAN they? Hmmm....

I disagree with the use of our forces to buy oilmen time to drill oil wells. I think it's unnecessary, presents a fiendishly high cost to the taxpayer(er, 'consumer'), and represents abuse of authority, and likely fraud and a laundry list of other problems. The worst problem, though, is that of the issue of 'defense', as well as the Constitution.
But, it's up to Congress to determine these things, to employ their consultants and scholars and lawyers to discern the proper 'way forward', hopefully these and other august bodies will reference the last profit war, Vietnam, and take action accordingly...

I hope their deaths are not related to the op-ed they wrote. The other five involved in the op-ed better watch their backs.

This world war that Bush and Cheney have gotten us into is just God awful and there is no end in sight.

These soldiers deserve all our respect and our gratitude as they have exposed the horrors of a war and the atrocities of our government. They have done more than serving in Iraq and giving their lives. They are our conscience, which we hide and avoid in our materialistic lives and stupid quarrels. We are the ones who killed them in spirit with our silence, and for that we are complicit to their deaths.

'You do not become a ''dissident'' just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.'

Vaclav Havel 1936-, Czech Playwright, President