I was reading the Minneapolis Star-Tribune this morning, the usual coffee-paper morning ritual. I glanced at a picture of a soldier sleeping on a hospital bench, sleeping with his arm thrown over his eyes. I commented to my wife that my dad, who served in the army in the early 60's still sleeps like that... old habits I guess. My daughter wanted to see the picture, which I showed her. She asked me why he was sleeping like that and I explained that they couldn't turn out the lights in the hospital and that when you are a soldier it is important to get sleep when you can. She then asked me a question that really gets to me.

"Daddy, do army people ever sleep, or do they keep on warring forever?"

I was stunned. I tried to explain that the war will be over eventually, but we don't really know when. Think of it from her perspective, we have been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for almost as far back as she can remember. So to her, war is the natural state of the world. This is not the way I wanted to have my children become cognizant of the wider world. It past time to get our country out of the mess we created in Iraq.