God on our side

I feel like I am doing my duty, but I am no patriot. I feel guilty when we get cards from Third graders who thank us for protecting their freedom - I want to scream back at the teachers and ask them how in the hell my being here protects their freedom. Or even impacts them one bit? There were no WMD, there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq... Has it been worth 3000 dead soldiers? And who knows how many dead Iraqis?

This war has taught me to fear Fanaticism. Oh yeah, before I feared it as a concept. Academically. But now I feel it personally. I fear beat-up blue cars, and garbage dumpsters with lids on them, trash on the side of the road, unshaven twenty-something men with darker skin, and anyone who ever says that God is on his side.