There are honorable deaths, there may be necessary wars. But this was neither honorable nor necessary. Does telling the truth blame the soldiers? It shouldn't, but it certainly should make the powerful less comfortable.

I don't support the troops, America, and neither do you. Here's what I do support: I support them coming home. And the best way you can support me -- and the ideals our country says it believes in -- is to get out of the military as soon as you can and never look back.

Victim is one of the two roles we allow our soldiers and veterans (the other is, of course, hero), but most don't have PTSD, and this isn't one of those stories.

Despite all that we veterans agree on these days, one of the sticking points in our conversations is invariably the debate over whether our troops still have a mission in Afghanistan.

Being anti-war does not mean that you still can't value the mission of the soldiers as the guardians of our liberties and our way of life-or their status as "heroes," particularly those who fought and died.

When you see my Purple Heart, you see my sacrifice, but I see and feel much more. I see the people I killed, the civilians that I failed to protect, and I am reminded that there will be no Purple Heart for them.

One fundamental premise of Obama's presidency has been his push for change, for civility, to heal splits between warring political parties. He wants us to make links that can withstand the threats by some to tear apart our culture.

American geo-policy is a self-perpetuating system that values human life as much as it values local and global ecosystems, which is to say, not at all.