I wanted to share a letter I received from a niece serving in Iraq, and to ask for prayers for her and her platoon. My congregation is already praying for them, but others praying for them would help.

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Hello Unk,
I just got back from another assignment, and again, we lost noone but did a lot of good. Now I have 4 days off to just relax. Yea!
I think I told you before that they feed us very well here. Tonight, we had the choice of fried chicken, roast beef, or chicken fried steak, with just about everything you can imagine to go on the side. It is almost as good as what you serve when I am there. The cooks are almost as good, to. I can't wait to get home and come by for one of your bbq's, though. I hope that I can bring a few things or at maybe recipes for the local foods. You'd like them. We have a couple Iraqi people that come in and help with food, so we get to taste some of the food from here, and it is really good.
I'm sorry to make a positive letter into a bitchy one, but I know that you are one of the few people I can complain to who won't go balistic or give me a foo foo pat on the wrist and a "that's okay baby" bs.
I want your honest opinion about what is happening at home? I don't mean at your home, I'm always safe there. What I mean is what we hear about that is happening in Washington. Why do the democrats hate us? They want to give up right when we are on the edge of winning. You and I have had a lot of arguments, okay, not arguments but discussions, because I've been a life long democrat. I still don't agree with many of your points. But if the democrats in washington keep it up, I can guarantee that I will switch parties, maybe not to republican, but at least to independent.
Unk, you told me how it was for the Vietnam vets, and how they felt betrayed by their own country. Don't the democrats in office realize that they are doing the same thing????????? They are slapping us in the face, telling our enemies exactly what to do to combat us. And Pelosi and Murtha are both talking about putting us in harms way, but making it sound like it is somebody else's fault. Do they really think that Americans are that stupid? What have they even done since they got in office, except to slap me and my team mates? All they have done is to tell the enemy, "Oh, we love you. Go ahead and take out the US, we don't care!" I won't say that we all feel that way over here, but most of us do. I know of a lot of people here who were democrats who will not ever vote democrat again, as long as they continue to treat us like second hand citizens. Don't they know that we are fighting for their freedom? Let a few of them come over and work the front lines, and see how quickly they will change their tune!
Does any media outlets at home even show how much we are loved here? Guess where our fresh vegetables come from? they won't even let the army pay for them! Every single exercise I've been involved with, there have been locals who will come up to you, hug you, give you gifts even when they really have nothing to give, and will put their lives on the line to save yours. I've seen kids that are crippled by our enemies, doing everything they can do to get to us, just to say thank you. We try to give them candy when we have it with us, but we don't always, and they don't care, they try to get to us anyway. There is a little girl here we have adopted as our mascot that you'd fall in love with. Her legs were blown off by one of the explosives the enemy uses. She knows were the explosives came from and knows that we have done nothing but try to help. Our platoon alone has raised over $1500 to help her, and more is coming. My Lieutinant has a daughter almost exactly the same age, and he is personally trying to get a little something extra in her "stocking", but I can't say what it is. Security, you know. I know that you have clearance, but it is need to know, and I don't want to get Lieutinant Brown in any sort of trouble.
Mostly what I want to know, if you can tell me, is if the people over at home really know how good the people here think about us, and what they do for us? Do they realize that we are now in a support position? Do they realize how many people the enemy has killed because they have no value in human life? Do they even know that if we don't fight them here, we will absolutely have to fight them in the US?
I've always been a democrat, but the party sickens me as it is now. They care only about themselves, not about us. You never thought you'd hear me say that, huh? But I know that you love me, and all of our military people. We were right in coming here, and we should be let to get the job done.
I'm asking you to please pray for my platoon, and for me, mostly for understanding at home. If you can have your congregation pray for us, too, it would be appreciated. I love you, unk, you know that. I pray for you, too, and have told other people in my platoon about you. They hope to meet you.
Love,
Sgt Cristine Trulove

I always pray for the safety and safe return of our men and women in the service. I will specifically add your niece and her platoon. Thanks for sharing such a personal letter.