xoB sent along this
Time.com photo essay on iraq war families dealing with loss, and two of the shots put a tear in my eye... this one, which is fourth of ten, and the one that follows it in the series at that link. You should go there, because Time presents the images better than I do.
You can take it any way you like, but the grief I feel, I want to be free of the politics of it all. For once, it's not to multiply by
it shouldn't have to be like this, or to divide by
on such an honorable mission. It is the same grief no matter why it happened, no matter whose fault is behind the decisions. Because the soldier doesn't make those decisions, s/he only lives and sometimes dies working on the mission given. In service that doesn't change with the party in power.