...and many saw it coming years ago.

There were fringe groups along the borders, but the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda, and you know it. It was simply two national leaders arguing about who was parking too close to whose Audi, and the UN intervened, which escalated this to threats of nuclear retaliation toward Israel and Turkey, about as far as Hussein’s SCUDs could reach. Let us not forget that Turkey is a NATO member and shall not be threatened with impunity, and that Israel includes a sizeable voting population, both in country and in the US, an often forgotten fact.

Nobody ever dies for a good reason, b, and there are no answers here. I do feel for your loss, but for the lost goal of a free and united Iraq, and a far more peaceful Middle East than what we have today, that one falls to the shoulders of the current administration, which threatens retaliation, but does too damned little. "Leading from the rear" has never worked on the global stage, and when a hornet's nest is stirred up, you just have to clean it out. Obama has ridden Bush' coattails as far as he can, and it's now well past time for him to stand up on his own two feet and face the guns. He needs to stop talking, and start doing -- something.

Keep the morals, b, as well as the morale. That's what separates you from them, and makes you the righteous threat.