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I am not an alleged soldier. I did write an email to Michael Moore, and gave him express permission to use portions of my email in this book. I felt compelled to respond to the reviewer who implied that I am not a real veteran of the Iraqi war and the 'war on terrorism.' I wrote a letter to Mr. Moore after I returned from Iraq because when I was sent to Iraq in March 2003 and throughout my ten months of service in Baghdad I was extremely upset at fighting a war that was not necessary. When I and my comrades signed up for the Armed Forces we knew war was a possibility, but we trusted that our government and our leaders would only call upon us to risk our lives if war was absolutely necessary and only as a last resort. The Iraq war was not absolutely necessary and was not waged as a measure of last resort. Mr. Moore's recent documentary seemed to echo my sentiment, so I wrote him with some of my thoughts. You will now find some of these thoughts in his book. Please at least flip through this book in the bookstore, if you can find it. We are real soldiers, and we are really upset at being used in a war that shouldn't be. I wouldn't expect the book to be filled with those soldiers and officers who support the war; generally, a lot of us at one point or another have had to convince ourselves that the war is necessary and good, which is sometimes the only way to keep yourself going. What you will see in the book are those us of who have stopped lying to ourselves, those of us who are now home, and some of us who were lucky enough to get out of the military so we can stop being pawns in a game we don't belong in. I was lucky to find my way out of the military through special exceptions to stop loss policies, but many members of the military are looking at endless deployments with little time at home with their families; our military is stretched extremely thin, and I am very concerned that if we as a country ever really need the might of our military it won't be there for us. -Andrew Balthazor