Whether for Bush or against, for Iraq or not, can't argue with the soldier's doing their job. Origin of the following still undetermined as to authenticity, but thought it was a great poem:
Poem - Remember our Soldiers
> A Different Christmas Poem
> The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round
> the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her
> head on my chest, My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
> Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, Transforming the
> yard to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I
> believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids
> were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded by
> love I would sleep. In perfect contentment, or so it would
> seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
>
> The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my
> eyes when it tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I didn't
> quite know, Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the
> snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, And I crept
> to the door just to see who was near. Standing out in the cold
> and the dark of the night, A lone figure stood, his face weary
> and tight.
>
> A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, Perhaps a Marine,
> huddled here in the cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up and
> smiled, Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. "What
> are you doing?" I asked without fear, "Come in this moment,
> it's freezing out here! Put down your pack, brush the snow from
> your sleeve, You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
>
> For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from the cold
> and the snow blown in drifts.. To the window that danced with a
> warm fire's light Then he sighed and he said "Its really all
> right, I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's my
> duty to stand at the front of the line, That separates you from
> the darkest of times. No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
> I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me. My Gramps
> died at 'Pearl on a day in December," Then he sighed, "That's a
> Christmas 'Gram always remembers." My dad stood his watch in
> the jungles of ' Nam ', And now it is my turn and so, here I
> am. I've not seen my own son in more than a while, But my wife
> sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
>
> Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, The red,
> white, and blue... an American flag. I can live through the
> cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my
> home. I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I
> can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat. I can carry the
> weight of killing another, Or lay down my life with my sister
> and brother.. Who stand at the front against any and all, To
> ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
>
> "So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, Your family is
> waiting and I'll be all right." "But isn't there something I
> can do, at the least, "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare
> you a feast? It seems all too little for all that you've done,
> For being away from your wife and your son." Then his eye
> welled a tear that held no regret, "Just tell us you love us,
> and never forget. To fight for our rights back at home while
> we're gone, To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For
> when we come home, either standing or dead, To know you
> remember we fought and we bled. Is payment enough, and with
> that we will trust, That we mattered to you as you mattered to
> us."
>
> PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as
> many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some
> credit is due to our U.S.service men and women for our being
> able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small
> way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and
> think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves
> for us.
>
>
> LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN 30th Naval Construction Regiment OIC,
> Logistics Cell One Al Taqqadum, Iraq.
>
Soldier's Christmas
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