Most young women and men join the Armed Forces for various reasons. No training prepares anyone for real war and death. On the front lines each second can change oneีs life forever. One has just to ask some one who was killed in battle as a companion and most of the time the feeling of the one who is alive - is why he or she and not me? Then there is a long pause - it is this long pause that hits home.

The recent happenings in Afghanistan and Iraq have disturbed many good and educated Americans. Of course we have millions of Americans who are fed on Talk Shows, have not traveled, have little or no education pertaining to world affairs, who believe the nonsense and trash that the media blurts day in and day out. Painting war on par with video games.

Our service men and women today are fighting a war that is taking a heavy toll of their lives. Hundreds of American families and their dear friends and relatives cannot understand why so many of our service men and women have returned home in body bags.

We find it amusing to find the President taking off to Iraq and all precautions taken just to spend Turkey Day at the expense of the taxpayer. We do not see the same precaution taken when in broad day light thugs shoot down our service men and women because we do not take the necessary precaution.

Life is life and for every single serviceman and woman killed the White House should compensate those who have died in a non-combative situation where their lives have been put in harms way. The compensation should be deducted from that part of the expenditure set aside to run the White House and from expenses linked to those White House personnel who do not care for our service men and women. These may be Cabinet Members. In some cases power has gone to their head as in the case of Rumsfeld.

In recent months there have been thousands of reports of children born because their parents were exposed to Depleted Uranium. Bombs dropped in Afghanistan and Iraq containing depleted uranium, which can stay active for over 4.5 billion years will wipe out many generations.

It is deplorable to see thousands of babies born deformed with no one to take care of these innocent children. Thousands of civilians - Iraqi and Afghani men and women suffering from tumors - just because they were exposed to depleted uranium which were part of the bombs and ammunition that was used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Armed Forces.

To abate the soil and to take care of the victims will cost billions of dollars. We must remember we went after Sadam and not the civilians of Iraq. We went after Al Queda and not the civilians of Afghanistan. The British, the Americans, and those who use depleted uranium in their ammunition should take full responsibility for the after affects on human life. Polluting Mother Earth.

I have been to both Iraq and Afghanistan when they were not at war with any nation. I have seen the goodness of these people with my eyes and enjoyed the hospitality of the Afghan and the Iraqi. It is NOT fair that these innocent people were taken advantage off.

The worst type of Weapon of Mass Destruction is the long lasting effect of Depleted Uranium. Iraq and Afghanistan do not have the means to clean up the toxicity that the ammunition and bombs have left behind. So far we have not a single country that has pointed this fact to the world court or to any world body that has any clout to do something about this horrific crime, crying out daily for justice.

The paradox is that our service men and women too have been exposed to depleted uranium and it will be left to history to document this serious episode. When our service men and women returned from Desert Shield and Desert Storm they all suffered from the Gulf Syndrome.

It took the United States Government over 10 years to fully admit that something was wrong with our service men and women. Thousands suffered from the after affects - some say it was the vaccination, others biological warfare, and still others depleted uranium. No one knows and no one will talk.

War is not for the civilized. Today more then before many a times politicians will lead a nation to war without proper justification. A world superpower cannot base it high sense of value by killing innocent people with mighty 5000-pound bombs. More so when the enemy has weapons that do not come anyway close to superior weapons.

Some of us should study the battles that Hannibal was involved. Perhaps read the episodes of Caesar. There is chivalry when it comes to hand to hand fighting. Fighting a war - remote control from battle ships hundreds of miles away and fighter planes that can drop huge bombs - have given war the most barbaric name one could convince any decent human being. We do it elsewhere and would not like anyone do it on home ground. There in lies the paradox of our stupid logic.

At one time in Afghanistan there was a war with an equal number of British soldiers fighting the Afghans with inferior weapons. The end of this story is not pretty. Only one British soldier totally bloodied was sent across the border to British India to tell the story. All his fellow soldiers, thousands of them were killed in a fair battle - man to man - superior weapons did the British have but the Afghans are second to none when it comes to combat fighting in the high mountains of Afghanistan.

Al Queda members are mostly not Afghans. These thugs are from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Yemen, Egypt, and other Muslim countries. Anyone with some intelligence will tell you that. We should have thought carefully when we used depleted uranium. We did not.

In Iraq it is as if history is repeating itself. The Iraqis kicked the Turks out of their country. And if one reads Iraqi history carefully they kicked the British out too. The United States does not have a prolonged history of colonizing any nation. Often times we side with the British to carry war and we made a bloody mistake when it came to Iraq.

They say history repeats itself. Let us pause and evaluate and if we take our soldiers as premium and put no price on our precious service men and women - with our superior weapons we have lost the war.

It does not matter if we cannot capture Sadam. This evil man could have been taken down by covert methods. We choose to brag, awe and shock and what not - today and tomorrow we will be licking our wounds and as to our pride - we will have a little but hopefully a lot of humility. Time we save face and get out of Iraq.

Perhaps in conclusion we should evaluate our wars with the Native Americans. Here again we lost on values and even as we celebrate the journey of Lewis and Clark and the hand of President Jefferson - in conclusion we have not learned much from conquests and we allow history to repeat itself.