There's right in both Odds and Fighting's posts.

I'm still too weary of politics to get into it much though.

Haven't been able to get engaged in serious debate since the election.

Feel like the passion does no good. Not so much defeated as politically depressed.

Hoping that feeling will subside.

Bill Hicks: "I have the unenviable position of being for the war and against the troops."

I am so screwed -- my best friend's birthday is on the 21st, and I'm a last minute shopper.

Tell you what -- I'll try to put it off until on my way to see her, on the 21st.

I feel for the grunts who signed up as a way to pay for school or become a citizen. However, I don't support the idotic mentality of those in charge. In the end it is always those doing the dirty work that pay the price. We were and continue to be ill-prepared for what is happening and I don't see any signs of deviation from the top brass' "stay the course" mentality.

I grew up right next to Offutt AFB. All my friends' parents went over during Desert Shield/Storm. Now I have a bunch of friends who joined ROTC programs here at ISU. Yes, there are a lot of people hoping to get a free ride through college for showing up one weekend a month (or whatever it is) who are now knee-deep in sand. However, when you sign up for the military, regardless of whether it was pre- or post-9/11, you cannot just assume that your 5 years will be peaceful. I'm not saying I don't support these guys and gals, that my heart doesn't drop every time I read that another bunch of them were injured or killed, that it doesn't suck that they are getting shipped over there, but like you said: these people also made a commitment to serve this country in the armed forces. I don't ever want to have to deal with the possibility of going over there and possibly dying, so I'm not enlisting. And yes, I do know some people who signed up after 9/11 so they could go over there and "get revenge." I know people that are excited about the kind of firepower the military possesses and talks about it in terms of how it kills someone or how many people it kills. There are some people who believe in "the cause" (our country's cause or their own personal cause or whatever) enough to die for it.