Huh, maybe so.

January 24, 2005, Ramadi

"I was on post this morning with Ben and basically we were talking about why the f--- we are here, besides you know, having fun and being bored all the time and people trying to kill us.  All this was while aiming weapons at traffic (it's necessary when  you have a scoped rifle, and you need to use the scope, don't judge me!)"

I realized, we're in Iraq because it doesn't matter about freeing Iraqis.  They will piss away their freedoms [...].  It's their culture. But at least all these foreign freedom fighters and extremists now have a battlefield, a place to stick it to us Americans. And that's fine with me, I'd rather fight them here than have my family killed in a bombing or [have] snipers gun down an innocent in the street [in America].  So basically, we're here to be like... f---ing bring it.  Its better here than home, you know?"

"Pick your battles."

--Journal Entry, Marine Lance Corpral Richard Chad Clifton, 19 years old. Reprinted from Newsweek, April 2, 2007.

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