Perhaps this will give away my age... It's from an old Vietnam era song. "He didn't die from a bullet, but he died from a broken heart."

It's great for the troops and their families to stay in touch. "Dear John" communications, whether snailmail, email, or phone call have been around forever, too, but I can't help but wonder who's taking care of the guys who get their hearts ripped out by the folks back home, because they're not equipped, nor would it likely be acceptable for them to take care of each other while deployed.

Considering the stress of suppressing your natural and normal and healthy "fight or flight" response on a continuous basis, dealing with the grief of losing your closest friends, sometimes in the most horrendous ways imaginable, the grief invoked by the loss of lovers and/or spouses and families at home (stress that would send any one of the chickenhawk war cheerleaders here at home over the edge permanently) is it any wonder a lot of our troops are coming home with mental stress/health issues, a lot them relating to unexpressed/unresolved grief?

Is it any wonder the pain of that load for guys who've been taught that to express any of their pain and grief would be "unmanly" and who know that to do so would cause the majority of their Commanding Officers to belittle their manhood; when using chemicals to try to medicate that pain leads to punishment and demotion rather than help--- that all of this leads to suicide for more than a few. What these guys need is a lot more love, help and support in how to deal with the very difficult issues in some of their lives and a lot less macho B.S.

Will they get it, or will some of our best, our brightest, our most courageous continue to suffer for this misguided travesty of a war for the rest of their lives because no one responsible for their being there is sane and sensitive enough to understand what long, repeated, deployments have done to them and what it takes for any of us to be psychologically/emotionally healthy.

I believe John Lennon was right when he penned the immortal words, "Love is all you need" (as long as these guys also get the help they need to recover enough so that they can give and receive love again after their hearts have been ripped out by the stuff they've gone through and then ripped out again by those who didn't or couldn't or wouldn't understand that what it had done to them just keeps right on ripping them up inside).

"nearly a third of married enlisted men...planning to get a divorce... the divorce rate among enlisted soldiers has risen from 2.3 percent in 2001 to 3.5 percent today."

I don't understand how those above figures fit together. Does that mean that 3.5% are currently divorced, but 33% plan to soon?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the US military and the local Iraqi communities where American men are stationed took steps to start allowing love and relationships between young American soldiers and local, young Iraqi women? What better is there to foster compassion, empathy and understanding between Iraqis and Americans than through the power of love?

We could loosen up the rules for granting visas to Iraqi ladies with boyfriends in the American military. We could take steps to make weddings between American GIs and Iraqi ladies quick, easy, efficient and inexpensive.

Imagine how wonderful it would be to have thousands of Iraqi "war brides" here at home in the US, promoting love and understanding between the American people and our Muslim cousins in Iraq and throughout the rest of the Islamic world.

Make love, not bombs!

Do it!

Are you retarded or simply uninformed? If an Iraqi girl shows any interest in an allied soldier the males in her family will KILL HER, literally. Try reading something besides Facebook and Myspace for a change.

Given the state of the culture in this 'nation' we brought 'democracy' to, the only way for our troops to get war brides would be to buy them outright. Any other sort of fraternization with GI's would of course result in 'honor' killing of the women in question.

Maybe some of the female GI's would like to take up with some Iraqi guys? Maybe not.

for these kids.

I have 2 kids who are 18 - twins - just graduated from HS last night. I cannot imagine these kids married, and cannot imagine how they would handle the twin stresses of marriage and war.

Yes. Tear at the emotions. It's "off-topic" but I spent three days at the beach before a beautiful 'lover' kissed me goodbye.

Drafted, naive, and fearful,

I got Dear GoodCelery! too.

Post a bona fide war's tryst,

I looked her up. I remember.

I wondered about the little baby.

I don't have blue eyes. They are hazel-green.

I counted (o eye-problem?) months on toes.

There are not many green eyed chubby babies.

Yes. Once she looked me up to weep with me.

I wondered why sixteen years past? Life flies bye.

I have an adult daughter. War and lies will break your heart.

A person can choose to try and avoid the dark and unknown.

The sad, dark, and evil.... war either ruins, kills you, or transform one.