A National Guard contingent of Alaskans left this week for training in Texas (ironic, wot?) in preparation for an 18-month deployment to Iraq. Two of them are people I know- a 56-year-old neighbor and the 19-year-old son of a friend of mine. The boy's mother is heartsick- her son doesn't want to go but sees no way out of it; the man won't be here to see his daughter graduate.

This kind of thing is happening all across the country. I understand and accept that the "coalition of the willing" cannot be expected to just cut and run from Iraq without longterm harm to the Iraqis- But what in the world was the Bush Administration THINKING when they started this war? The very idea of not having an exit plan is grounds for impeachemnt right there, imo.