QOTW

Kayla Williams, former Sergeant in a military intelligence company of the 101st Airborne and author of Love My Rifle More than You, about her 2003-04 tour in Iraq (at 14-15; hyperlinks added):

I never thought I would feel this way--not about these guys, not about this war, not even about my country. I was a punk-kid rebel, and now I'm part of the most authoritarian institution imaginable. I thought this war was probably wrong, didn't want to go. The lies that killed some of us, that wounded and maimed more of us: Only the most messed-up-patriotic-head-up-his-ass-blind-faith-in-my-country-right-or-wrong soldier believed them.

But now I watch a cheesy commercial for Anheuser-Busch of civilians applauding troops returning from Iraq and I get all emotional. I also watch videos on the Internet, with combat footage--"Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" and "Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)"--and it chokes me up. It's scary to think about how much being in the Army has changed me. . . Everything I thought I knew about what it would be like turned out to be wrong.