Hi Trinity and All, I hope, and it was not my intention, to offend, or "slam" anyone at all for expressing their opinions on the war. I am sorry Trinity if you did feel that someone was being "slammed". If someone did feel like they were being slammed then maybe it was due to my poor choice of words and I apologize. I should not have used the word, "bickering" and probably should have used the word, discussion. Everyone has the right to their opinions even if they differ. We all come from different backgrounds and have had different life experiences that have molded our thoughts and opinions. There really is no right or wrong. I am really amazed that this list is allowing the discussion of off-topic subjects and I really applaud it for doing so. I think that many of us need a place to discuss our opinion and this is really terrific. I myself usually do not submit opinions for fear of being "slammed", rejected, shot down etc. but this time I decided to take the chance. Maybe if some of you know what my background is, then you will understand why I am so concerned over the welfare of our troops and their families particularly when they return from active duty in the war. I was at home when 911 took place and I saw it unfold as it happen in real-time as many others did. What I didn't realize at the time, is that my one and only sister, who resides in another state, would be flown into the twin tower area by the government as a member of a team to perform the recovery processing procedures related to the remains of the deceased. These individuals also, sometimes have the responsibility of notifying the families that their loved one is deceased. I am at a loss for words right now when I try to explain to everyone on the list the psychological impact that these horrible tasks has had on my sister and the members of our family. Someone has to do it. It takes a special kind of person to take on the recovery task and it has required my parents, myself, and other members of the family to make major adjustments in our lives so that my sister can continue to prepare herself and help others in a time of crisis like 911. The biggest problem we have had is that we do/did not know what to do when she returned home and had a difficult time adjusting to life as normal like it was before she left. She was a changed person when she came back and I don't think she was able to acknowledge how much the experience had affected her. Although I did not loose anyone close to me in the disaster, I began to feel that I had lost many friends. Through my sister's daily emails and phone calls I got to hear first hand, see and read about the aftermath of the clean up for months to come. My sister was assigned the responsibility of taking care of the psychological needs of her team which consisted of 30 individuals that had to handle and process the the remains of those that lost their lives on 911. She was the one who was there for these individuals to keep a check on each individual's psychological state and to listen and help them through their difficult tasks. I don't think there was anyone there to help her when she felt overwhelmed by what she was seeing first hand and I don't really think she started to process mentally everything she saw until she returned home. Her returning home has had a tremendous impact on the immediate family and I am not sure we will ever fully recover from its impact. One of the difficulties that has hit us hard is that the Twin Tower Area was classified as a "crime scene" and the recovery individuals cannot discuss much of what they have seen. There wasn't any assistance available for her and her team when they returned home. We have moved on in the best way we know how. In the future the government has promised additional counselors to help the counselors when they are overwhelmed. Something is better than nothing. Our guys and ladies who are fighting for our country will be traumatized by what they have seen and have had to do. The actual impact on these individuals may not show up until sometime after they have returned home. Their memories may come back to haunt them and I just hope and pray that we can be there and will know what to do to help them. I do not want to turn our backs to them and tell them it is their problem. They may need care packages while they are overseas and they and their families will need even more help of a different kind when they return. or sadly if they do not return in the same condition that they departed in. It might be that we just need to help mow the lawn on an occasion or trim their hedge or invite them out to do something fun that will take their minds off their memories. Maybe we will just need to sit and listen...regardless of how horrible the memories are.. I think it is called PTSS..Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. I kind of felt at least for myself that I needed to look to the future and prepare for to what is yet to come. We need to be more prepared than we were when the Vietnam Veterans returned home. Even with my recent experience I am not sure I will have all the answers but I do know that if there is a terrorist attack in the state that my sister lives in, I will have an opportunity to test what I have learned. I don't see my sister often, but just visiting via the phone has presented it own problems. My sister will be the first call out person and the "manager" of the crisis should a terrorist attack take place in her half of her state. She knows how to take control of a crisis situation and make order out of it. She can think when other people freeze up. She will get people's attention and get them doing what they should be doing to help the situation and save lives. She has the experience and training and now does this type of thing for local agencies and corporations on a full time basis. She has been traveling to several other states at their request to advise them on how to prepare for crisis situations such as a terrorist attack. It was not my intention to offend individuals for speaking their mind. My intent was to make everyone a ware of some of the problems ahead which we have not handled very well in the past. I was hoping that we could do more for those individuals who were fighting for us so we can continue to have the privilege of speaking our minds without fear of punishment. They are taking a huge risk for us. Like I said before, we are in the war now and that decision is a done deal. We cannot turn the clock back and although some of us may not have made this choice to go to war, we are stuck with this decision. Do we all need to pull together in spite of our differences of opinion to figure out how we are going to get through it? Maybe so... Are we capable of doing this? Anne in Texas