Capt. Christopher Sheppard returned back to the US after two tours of Iraq and says:
>As I watched the Iraq war begin, I completely trusted the Bush administration. I thought we were going to prove all of the left-wing antiwar protesters and dissenters wrong.

I believed the Bush administration when it said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. I believed its claim Iraq had vast quantities of biological and chemical agents. After years of thorough inspections, all of these claims have been disproved.

I believed the administration when it grandly proclaimed we were going to bring a stable, Western-style liberal democracy to Iraq, complete with religious tolerance and the rule of law. Iraq dangerously teeters on the brink of civil war. We have emboldened Iran and destabilized the entire Middle East.

I believed the administration when it claimed the war could be done quickly and cheaply. It said that Iraqi oil revenue would fund the country's reconstruction. I believed President Bush when he landed on the USS Lincoln and said "major combat operations have ended."

Regrettably, I acknowledge that it was I who was wrong."

Well, I can use this point of view to challenge Tom Brozs, gbaikie, REB, SteveS, LarryJ and all those other conservatives who hiss at us "lefties" for our continued stance against this illegal war of aggression and occupation.
Here was a man, a Marine who believed it all (just like you) and who was proved WRONG. The difference here is that he ACCEPTS these facts, while the rest of you <don't.>