[Dogstar]

SmackxxxCreed, yes, you are wrong in thinking that I am coming across as if what you and your father have done for our country doesn't matter. I never had had any quibble with the men and women who defend our country and its way of life. I have the utmost respect for them. I lost a cousin in a military helicopter crash in 1984. He was 21 years old and he volunteered for a training mission, so he wasn't even supposed to be on that copter. I believe 15 or 16 military men died in that crash. My uncle spent 30 years in the Navy and my stepfather spent four years in the Navy.

I do, however, disagree with the policies of the present administration that our military are forced to carry out, and I'm sorry, but my convictions and beliefs are as strong as yours.

What I took issue with was your insistence, and that of many other Bush supporters, that those who don't share your opinion are less intelligent and less informed. Yes, you have been to Iraq and I haven't. However, that doesn't mean that I don't know what's going on. And *bashing* the administration, as you call it, does not reflect on how I feel about the brave men and women who choose to be in the line of fire. Again, it's the administration's policies with which I disagree.