I ran into another Marine Mom at the grocery store today. She has two sons in the Corps--one in the reserves and one in Iraq. Her son's only been there a few weeks, stationed at Camp Ramadi, just like my son, Tim. The rapport was immediate. Though we had never met before, we understood one another. I knew what she was going through. She knew what I had been through. We embraced each other and held back mutual tears. I was surprised at how close to the surface my emotions still are. The memory of what it was like to have a son in harm's way was so ready, so fresh.

Unless you've been there, it's impossible to understand the pride, the hope, the sacrifice that attends the deployment of a loved one. I'm so glad mine is home. I ache so deeply for all those whose are still there. And my heart breaks everytime I hear of one who isn't coming home. I want this war to be over in a way that all the liberals in congress can't begin to understand.

And yet, my greatest fear is that, with the newly elected Democratic congress, this war will be over before it's time. That we will, indeed, "cut and run". That we will leave those Iraqis who have bravely risked everything to bring a semblance of democracy to their country to the mercy of extremists. That Iraq will be, after all, another Viet Nam.

You see, I was eighteen when we broke all our promises and left Viet Nam. For what seemed like my whole life, I had watched the evening news with my parents. I had seen the body bags. I had listened to the casualty counts. I knew that my friends' brothers and fathers were dying over there. Then, in 1974, I watched vicariously the desperation of people willing to do anything--anything--to get out of Saigon. I watched the bamboo curtain slam down on that nation. And now, more than thirty years later, Hmong Christians still suffer because of that betrayal. And the Viet Nam vets...and their families...wonder what all the sacrifice was for.

If I thought it would do any good, I would plead with our new congress to not let our sacrifice--and the far greater sacrifice of too many families like ours--be in vain. But I have lost faith in the political system. When ideologies speak louder than constituencies, what can one voice do?

And that's the view from the Rabbit Hole.