I’m a single mother who would do anything to protect and provide for her family. I’m sure that it is the same for any parent. But when I learned of the news that I was going to be deployed everyone kept asking me how could I do it. Well I became a soldier before I became a mother, and just knowing that I could help the children in Iraq have a better future helped ease the pain.

One of the hardest things I saw over there is the children running up and down the highway with no shoes, worn out clothing and begging for food. All I kept thinking was what if that was my son or daughter? I know that some of the children from the Middle East were trained to act that way but there were the few you just knew needed a miracle. Would they know that, since all they knew of was living in a house built out of mud, dirt floors, never wearing shoes or having the chance to taste the foods that we have?

So I often ask myself knowing that there are several hundred locals still living in the Middle East that don’t want us there, is taking the chance to die for my country worth it since they don’t know what a better way of life is? Can we ask an area that has lived with certain traditions, customs and a way of living for hundreds of years to change? I just hope that for the sake of the fallen soldiers, the injured and for the rest of us in uniform that what we are doing over there is the right thing.

Saddam was a very bad and evil person. By finally capturing him hopefully the locals of the Middle East can live with some peace of mind. The children can finally begin to learn and everyone doesn’t have to worry about being slaughtered for no reason. At least we gave them that comfort, but I regret that the nationals of the Middle East may not understand what we went through to do that for them.

They don’t realize that hundreds of kids have not seen their mom or dad possibly both for several months, they don’t know that the family of the soldiers live in fear everyday wondering if the next phone call is the ‘one’ telling them of the bad news. They don’t know that some of soldiers have yet to see their new children, or that there are kids who will never see one of their parents again. They don’t know that there are injured soldiers who will never be the same again. They don’t know of the problems that occur because of being away for so long from their family.

I just hope that God and Uncle Sam are both looking down at those who sacrificed so much for trying to help Iraq and bless a miracle upon them.

God bless the troops and civilians who risk their lives and the sanity of their families.

Love,
Single Mom