Raining outside. At least today Henri, the 100 lb dog who thinks he's a puppy, didn't jump on the bed at 2 a.m. and give me the full body press until I got up and let him outside to take a nature break. He did that the day I took my flight test. But then there's a plan. Once I'm up the little Minou ("Me New" the cat) gets a can breakfast, but never eats it all. Guess who's eager for the leftovers? Yep, explains the 100 lbs. Since Minou and Henri usually can't stand the sight of each other, it's amazing to see how they cooperate in the area of food.

Winter has closed in, giving us several days of clouds and rain. You go out only if you have to go somewhere, which is always. We should have floats on our cars in Houston - or amphibious (sp?) cars. Half the time you're fording water to get from A to B. 

Another bombing in Baghdad. Nephew Daniel's company was hit a second time, a week after the Mason City paper did a story on an earlier attack. It described how Daniel and one other medic tended to the wounded. A week after the article a mortar round killed the other medic. It made my stomach hurt.

I wonder if Americans would have supported risking their sons and daughters had they been given honest information - that there was no imminient threat of attack by Saddam, who had no weapons of mass destruction and was writing a lousy fiction book before the war, hardly a General focused on bringing us down.  While Congress and the White House give their buddies no bid contracts to the VP's ex company in Iraq, kids like Daniel and his unit pay the price.

I hated Saddam but its worse when the American people are deceived about the necessity of something as serious as starting a war. I believe Americans will do the right thing if given the truth, but we never had that opportunity. Now its cost over 500 of our young, over $200 billion and thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.

And worse yet, the stupid mistakes made --like not having a post war plan--are going to cost more lives. I discovered Daniel's unit, a supply and maintenance unit, doesn't have enough troops protecting them. They drive the tankers and food trucks that keep the rest going...

Pray for Daniel and the rest of those kids over there, protecting the cronies of those in power who are making millions off this war and the innocent blood of these kids.