Ty Ziegel gives me one more reason to despise our continuing occupation in Iraq--and all war and needless violence, for that matter!

Ty Ziegel, American Hero

I watched a truly sad--yet horrid--program on my cable TV last night. No, it wasn't in High Definition, as are the local channels now that I upgraded my cable box. However, the image of Ty Ziegel (above) is forever etched in my mind in Ultra High Definition.

The basic thrust of the CNN program entitled, Waging War on the VA, was that we are inadequately (grossly so!) compensating our wounded servicemen and women returning from Iraq. Ty's story was only one of countless others that suggest that money is not only the basis of our being there in the first place, it is the basis upon which we are inadequately measuring the damage being inflicted upon our servicemen and women who have courageously gone to Iraq, mistaken in the notion that their presence in Iraq is a portion of our War on Terror. Even now, after having pulled down Saddam's statue and having watched the sad--but clearly criminally insane--Saddam gruesomely hanged ... and while observing the entire Middle East deteriorate as we continue to occupy a country which was originally (in 2003 and before) in direct opposition to Osama bin Laden ... our young men and women there believe they are on the leading edge of that same War on Terror.

Sadly, the countless other 'stories' of Iraqi men, women and children whose bodies and minds have been as disfigured as Ty Ziegel's (above) ... will never make CNN Cable News.

Oh yes, only two months ago, Ty's younger brother (and best friend), Zack Ziegel, was deployed to Iraq.

And the band plays on ...