Soldiers wish politicians would embed with them

[RamboLiberal]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Army Staff Sgt. Antonio Gonzales points his weapon across the Tigris River, keeping a close eye on a bridge that was cracked in half by an insurgent attack a few months ago.

He's 31 and on his second tour in Iraq. His survival and that of the men he serves with rely on an instinctive ability to spot hidden threats. A pile of trash, an odd formation of wires, a cart seemingly left innocently by the side of the road -- all could mean death.

"If you don't come out here, then you really have no clue," says Gonzales, a member of Task Force Justice, which is operating in northern Baghdad. "They don't understand what it is driving down the road and to wonder if you are going to get blown up or not."

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Staff Sgt. Harry Thomas Morgan, on his third tour of duty, says, "It is my personal belief that if you are in a leadership position from senator to president, you should have to come here and live with the soldiers on the ground, not necessarily in the 'Green Zone' where we have the most luxuries.

"America needs to see what we see through the eyes of the soldier."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/10/iraq.soldiers/index.html

[sueh]

1. K & R for our brave soldiers...

who are being used as pawns. God damn it, I hate this war and I hate the people who put us here.

[King Coal]

2. Larry Craig is up for it.

[blm]

3. How many senators and congresspeople HAVE stepped out of the safe zones

over the last 4 years?

Probably less than a handful.