thank you so much for your prayers for my grandson....i know you lost your nephew because i have been reading the discussions. i certainly do not minimize the loss of so many young lives.

i did not mean that we should go to war to enforce democracy all over the world. of course there were compelling reasons (or so we all thought) at the time this war began, and if we are honest both parties were supporting the invasion of iraq. at the time i was in the minority who thought it was not necessary and defended the french (i'm a francophile) for suggesting we were being hasty while the whole country was refusing to say "french fries". do you remember all that? the point is that now that we are there, we must see it through or it will all have been for nought. we cannot leave the iraqi people in chaos. our efforts are slowly showing progress and we must stay the course.