My heart breaks everytime I read these articles. Three more US Troops Dead according to the Washington Post. That raises the total killed in Iraq to 49 for October.

I lay in bed sometimes at night, thinking about how relatively safe and comfortable I am. I imagine what it would be like to be on a third tour of Iraq with death and uncertainty around every corner.

I imagine what it is like to be a mother, looking out the front window and seeing a Captain in full dress uniform walking up to your front door, her stomach tightening as she instinctively knows why he is there.

I imagine what it is like to be in Walter Reed hospital, being taught how to carry on with your life minus an arm, leg or both.

I imagine what it must be like to be an Iraqi, knowing that death is waiting for you in a thousand forms from a hundred enemies and its randomness is unfathomable.

I imagine how much better all their lives would be, and how much more like me laying in bed they would be had the U.S. government not gone into an illegal, immoral, and unnecessary war of aggression in a place it did not understand or belong in.

I imagine things are going to get worse before they get better.

I stop imagining and start praying.

UPDATE 10/16/06
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Seven more US troops have been killed in action in Iraq, bringing the number of American troops to have died this month to 57.