It interesting to read reaction of civilians as they try to grasp the reality of war.

Great article and so true.5 years ago this summer I had a friend killed in Iraq-it not only made front page headlines in my small town paper but was reported on many New England TV stations and in newspapers across Northern New England.There were at least 3 different memorials held that were also widely covered.Now,the death of a soldier in this war may rate a tiny paragraph on page 3,if anything at all.
Would love to see more from this writer.

Thank you for this post.

I sense that the war has many victims we don't hear about and this may be one example of someone is alive, not maimed or psycologically damaged. It is too bad that Jack places himself in the green zone, whatever his reason. That is his personal choice. Maybe he'll choose to return here and deal wilth the adrenalin issue.

I would imagine that being used by this president to occupy a country for undefined and ever changing goals in a war clearly based on lies would be enough to cure someone of wanting to be there. Sure the troops would prefer to be home with their loved ones.

Since Petraeus and Crocker will be testifying about Iraq with their 'surge' report it is little wonder the MSM go elsewhere for their reporting. Most of them have been enablers of this war and fail to report on it because they have been used as tools. There are many exceptions of course as the books about Iraq have come out.

The American people seem more concerned about who got kicked from American Idol. If you don't ask for more than that, you will continue to dumb down about everything.

The news says that US troops are currently working to push the opposition beyond 170mm mortar range from the Green Zone. My guess is that military planners got caught by surprise that the efforts to push al-Sadr out of Basra would be accompanied by shelling of the Green Zone. So it may be that the Basra offensive has just been put on hold. First make sure the folks in the Green Zone are safe, then remove troops who refuse to shoot at their brothers in Basra, and try again to take it over. It would be comical if it weren't life and death.

Winning the lottery is a dream most people play and replay in their minds. I d, too, but I don't buy any tcikets so my winning will remain well ensconced in fanatsy land.

The lottery Jack won is one that has created more atheists than any other, except for the instances when the guy next you gets killed while you are unharmed. I wish him all the luck necessary to get over his adrenalin addiction.

I am saddened by the MSM declining to report the news from Iraq. In the 60s the reports about Vietnam kept on coming and people became enraged or deadened to the carnage. In this altercation we are kept well away from the blood and gore of Americans and Iraqis being killed and maimed daily. Without this media imposed censorship America would have demanded a conclusion long ago.

This lack of news from the front and the resulting fact that the war is mostly absent from the nightly news makes for a strange disconnect in politics when some Republican Congressman huffilly asks "Don't you know there's a war going on?" when somebody has the temerity to attempt to thwart the latest contracting boondoggle.

Help Phil Donahue promote his movie:
http://representativepress.googlepages.com/bodyofwar
Buy Tomas Young's double album and help the cause

Sounds like Jack has a pretty good chance of winning that lottery; considering his loyalties, just what is his motivation for wanting that win reported on the news?

The attacks on the Green Zone are simply the Counter-Surge which was to be expected by anyone who thought deeper than taking Bush at his word.

Funny how this works, but if you kill someone's friends and relatives they might decide to take revenge upon you.

I don't care.

I don't care about you, them or us.

There is only losing now or losing later.

We learned nothing.

We used a bazooka to kill a gnat,
and destroyed someone's home.
When they complained
we killed them.

Heckuva job, America

I understand your concerns about your friend. And I do not wish to belittle his service to our country. It is sad that he had faith in the moronic chimp currently residing in the White House. I do sense something inherently wrong with this entire scenario that you have described. It starts with your friend's following statement about going back to Iraq:

"'I really feel alive here, I guess I'm an adrenalin junkie.'"

I find it particularly troubling that someone might "really feel alive" in a setting that is so centered around needless death, destruction, greed, ambition, power, and purely wrongheaded inhumane objectives as is this war of Bush's. Perhaps there is something about extreme human suffering that causes us, or at least some of us, to feel "really alive". You say he returned as a contractor, and there is no detailed information regarding that fact, but I also have difficulty feeling good about the profit motive that possibly exists for that return (perhaps profit is not his motive).

Regardless, I see a direct correlation between the frivolousness of the media in not covering events in Iraq, and your friends SEEMINGLY frivolous regard for the plight of Iraqis whose lives are being destroyed while he satisfies his need as an "adrenalin junkie".

I hope your friend returns safely.

You're welcome.

Our military and State Department have been very effective in controlling and limiting the information coming from both Iraq and Afghanistan. It's part of what they call their "Information Warfare" operations. It's an operation directed not at our enemies but at you and me. What information does get out is, more often than not, shaped to fit some stateside political objective. See, for example, a copy of the Strategic Communications Plan accidentally released by our Embassy in Baghdad in December 2006: http://tinyurl.com/2urho3 (scroll down for the document).

Among the more reliable sources for news about what's going on is the foreign press, including the BBC, AFP, Al Jazeera, Asia Times Online, Spiegel Online and a few blogs by Iraqis who are still in Iraq.

they go for excitement and it looks like they are getting it. the iraqis are giving us a slow bleed. they will wear us down in deaths and money spent on this illegal war.

most americans are imperialist and many are war mongers. the super power called the united states is about to be brought to its imperialistic knees.

americans dont like a long drawn out war but a fast win to fill their pride of being a winner and superpower.


we are a bankrupt country living on borrowed money. that will end soon when the euro becomes the world currency. corruption has its price.

the rest of the world sees us for we are are. at least bush found his evil empire. he looked into a mirror.

At our UU church, we have a candle ceremony. You light a candle and speak into the microphone so all can hear - common topics are children's birthdays, pleas for healing thoughts for illnesses, the occasional rant, enlightening moment, etc...

An Army Captain did a candle of healing for one of his soldiers who had committed suicide after coming home - the young soldier couldn't leave the war in Iraq. Here's a link to the audio -

http://atouchingcandle.blogspot.com/

Click on "Coming home from war is hard for soldiers."

More people need to hear first-hand accounts in order to understand the true evil of the war in Iraq, and the toll it is taking on soldier's and their families. Thanks for sharing this post.

I'll light a candle for Jack's safety - The light of one candle illuminates the darkness in some small way, and I do think our hopes, especially combined, can create a better way.