by Lisa Gill, a member of Military Families Speak Out from Auburn, Washington whose son-in-law is serving under stop-loss orders in Iraq.

By Gertrude F. Treadway. "With the death toll mounting daily in Iraq and with our troops facing increased demoralization, America's policies need to be rethought. I saw on CNN this morning a prediction by one of our senior generals that anti-American feeling is on the rise and will only get worse. What can we do?"

By Debbie Roath. "I have written to you recently concerning the Pentegon's recommendation of cutting family seperation allowance and hazardous duty pay by $225 per month effective October 2003."

By Lenexa. "I wrote the following letter to my Congressman and Senators today after I received an email from my son this morning letting me know that he would not be coming home next week. This is due to Rumsfeld's decision this week to hold troops that are currently deployed for an indefinite period of time."

However you want to think about bringing about redeployment of our troops from Iraq, however you want to slice the pie, it seems to me the most effective thing the Senate can do is just turn off the Niagra Falls money spigot -- just don't send any funding forward. It sounds odd because it means the best thing the Senate can do is......nothing. You might reply, "That doesn't guarantee we'll get redeployment". To which I'll say, "Shoveling more money sure isn’t doing it either."

As I write this letter my husband has just been taken to surgery to repair damage done to his shoulder largley due to wearing body armor more than 15 hours a day, seven days a week for over 10 months while deployed to Iraq with the Massachussets Army National Guard.

MFSO Alaska members have written another letter to Senator Murkowski urging her to call for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation and to call for all of our troops to be brought home now.

This past week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld replied to letters delivered to him from family members who attended the August 26 meeting in Fairbanks. These letters don’t answer the questions and concerns we posed to him. It is difficult to trust that his interest in speaking with the families of the 172nd Stryker Brigade was genuine. However, we believe a more important aspect of this meeting warrants your attention. Download a pdf copy of the letter.

People ask me every day "So is your husband home safe?" I usually reply "Yeah, he got home from Iraq several months ago.” What I really want to say and what's usually going through my head at that very moment is, "NO, HE IS NOT SAFE. HE IS NOT OKAY AND HE ISN"T EVEN THE SAME PERSON."

My son is a 27 year old staff sergeant in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, and he has spent almost 2 of the last 3 years in Iraq. He recently returned home from his 3rd deployment, and for that I am thankful. However, it is clear to me that he will never be the same. I’ve watched him turn from a sensitive young man, who wore his heart on his sleeve and was in awe of being “in the cradle of civilization,” into someone who is filled with so much rage that he can barely speak. You may think his anger is directed at the Iraqis or at those who’ve been variously described as terrorists and insurgents, and on some level you’d be correct. However, those with whom he is most angry sit in Washington, D.C.

On March 1, 2006, members of Military Families Speak Out, along with an Iraq Veteran Against the War, met with Senator John Kerry in Washington, DC, and delivered the following letters from MFSO members in Massachusetts. The military families were disappointed in Senator Kerry's unwillingness to show leadership and call for the troops to be brought home now.

As constituents and the parents of an Army soldier, we urgently request that you stand up to address this issue (the war in Iraq) by working in Congress to bring our troops home now. We sincerely believe that such action would be in keeping with your oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States.

Every night, shortly before I go to bed, my son wakes up in Iraq. Thinking about him there strains my memory, wanting denial to be an option so I can freely imagine riding a bicycle beside him, or having a beer with him during an evening of shooting pool. One image of youth, one of a young man, both wishing they didn’t have to compete with the reality of thinking about him as a soldier in a hostile land.

Over the past several days I have been struck by the similarities between the chaos in Iraq and New Orleans. One major difference is that the media have been more critical and questioning about the debacle in New Orleans/Mississippi/Alabama.

" When you’re a Governor, making difficult decisions is part of the job description. Just ask the chief executives of 33 states who attended the 97th annual meeting of the National Governor's Association in Des Moines, Iowa on July 15-16, where they had to choose between boots, bats, or bucks. The 233 pairs of combat boots -- one for each National Guard soldier killed in Iraq – were the focal point of a Memorial service co-sponsored by American Friends Service Committee and Military Families Speak Out to honor the citizen soldiers."

By Denise Thomas. "We were already in a major war and another one would have stretched our military resources to the limit (which it did). Gulf War Syndrome had never been addressed, and as I feared, our soldiers are becoming mysteriously ill AGAIN. We did not build up the numbers of our military past peacetime strength before engaging in this war, and we had no strategy to keep the peace."

By Maxine Gentle. " To Prime Minister Tony Blair, My name is Maxine Gentle and I am 14 years old. I am the sister of Fusilier Gordon Gentle who died in the war in Iraq on the 28th June 2004. I want my thoughts and feelings to be heard and known. My feelings are that I think you are rubbish at your job. You don't care about the British public, armed forces or anyone in fact."

By Robin Godfrey. "Congresswoman Shelley Capito has pronounced her plan to go to Iraq because, she says, she supports the troops. These free junkets for Bush's lackeys like Capito, who got us into this mess, should be banned. They are nothing more than cynical, tax-paid photo ops; they are an abuse of and very disrespectful to our soldiers, and can only interfere with their work."

Cindy Norris. "I learned then that cough and diarrhea were almost a constant there. They had a little First Aid Station, but they were out of nearly everything. As a Registered Nurse, I am passionate about those in need having access to basic medical care and supplies. However, I had never expected that need to come from The United States Army. "

By Anne Bayerkohler. "I will not talk about how... he is someone's son, grandson, brother, uncle, friend, and husband. How he was a volunteer firefighter, and joined the service only out a sense of duty and patriotism. I will not talk about the lack or food or clean water or protective equipment for our soldiers (not the lack of funds, mind you). I will not tell that story because those stories are everywhere and you have heard them all before."