Our Extraordinary, Ordinary Soldiers.

Some of you have noticed, and some have disapproved, that I am now blogging on soldiers who have lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom. This is not any organized thing I am doing, it is simply kind of a reminder to me that these are real human beings. Each one had dreams, hopes, desires; they had family members whom they loved and who annoyed them heartily. And they volunteered to serve their country. Some to pay for college, some because after 9/11 they felt a sense of duty, so because it seemed like a good way out of poverty.

The people I have picked have been at random. I go to Faces of the Fallen and choose a name, look them up on Google and report what I find. What I have learned is that the war is not worthy of the warriors we have sent. Out of four random people I have found four extraordinary human beings:
Lance Corporal Ramona Valdez: The woman who would have been a scholar; who graduated from high school two years early.
Master Sergeant James Curtis Coons: Winner of the bronze star. I believe he died because of undiagnosed mental illness.
Private Devon D. Jones: Came from the worst parts of America and wanted to teach English. Told his girlfriend that he wanted to live because he had not had a chance to do so yet.
Sergeant Troy David Jenkins: Threw himself on an unexploded cluster bomb to protect an Iraqi girl and his unit.

This administration has discarded these people as though they did not matter, in a war started on a premise of lies. This administration is fundamentally evil in their devotion to serving themselves at the expense of the nation.

Today I remember Spc. Derrick J. Lutters who was 24 years old when he was killed. He was inspecting a bridge to make sure it was safe before his convoy went over it. He was from Burlington, Colorado which is very much a part of the great plains. His father said that: "He thought he could help the world by going over there."

Just another one of the ordinary, extraordinary soldiers we have lost.