These are two quotes from Rick via emails he has sent to me and also his personal answer to my question about the war. It's with his permission that I publish them here. I am dong so in an effort to give you a glimpse inside Iraq from the perspective of a soldier who has no agenda, nothing to gain from telling his views. Please recognize this is one side of the story. Again, I would love to hear from any other soldiers or others deeply affected by this war.

The 8 man element I deployed w/ was split in two and sent to different locations south of Baghdad. My 4 man team has been doing heavy amounts of IED (improvised explosive device) response w/ much success. We are on call 24 hours a day, working mainly during the evening/early morning hours. It's a big game of cat and mouse out here, you'll never catch the bomber, just contain him as best you can. The others have been working w/ the Iraqi bomb squads and haven't been out as much, I think they are getting frustrated.

As far as war goes, I'm on the fence. I don't really like talking politics/war/religion, that's my thing. I've been part of this "cooperation" for almost 11 years and love my job, country, and freedom. It feels as if I can have all of those things, I'll do whatever it takes to keep it, even live in this big sand box defeating IED's for half a year. Iraq is a shit hole, 100 times worse than the dirtiest day in Tijuana. The people are savages, it's amazing they've survived for this long, very primitive. I understand why we're here, but don't always agree w/ it. I support my boss/President, but sometimes don't feel he's doing the right thing. I'd love to pull the troops out, but it couldn't happen, this place would fall apart. But, then again, why do we have to be the "police" of the world? I don't know. I think that's the most I've spoken about the war/politics in sometime.

Rick is scheduled to come home inthe summer of 2007. Thanks for reading his opinion.