Kat,
It's a very different thing to hear those things from abroad than it is to hear it from your own country. Yet, I'll say again, it is the right of those who have the urge to express their opinions to express them, to friends, in the media, wherever someone will listen. It's just that I myself would not handle it that way.

I have several friends who served the country in the Gulf War and a couple who were involved in Viet Nam including my father-in-law. Every one of them have said that it is demoralizing to hear that the same people they are there to represent are putting down what they are doing or even worse, denying them altogether by saying that "They (the troops) don't represent me, cause I'm against the war."

It's very easy in the comfort of our own homes, in the glow of our computer screens, to say that they should realize that we're just exercising our freedom of speech. I suspect it's a little different with Iraqi troops on one side and the pressure of public opinion on the other.


Frank