C-17s should be ready to go at various military bases around the world packed with water food medical supplies sleeping bags and tents all prepared to be air dropped in alongside soldiers and doctors to begin relief efforts.

During a trip to Iraq last fall I visited our theater hospital at Balad Air Force Base and witnessed these skilled medical professionals in action and met the brave soldiers whose lives they saved.

The day after the prison was transferred to the military intelligence command they had an entire battalion - 1 200 1 500 soldiers - arrive at Abu Ghraib just for force protection alone.

How can faceless bureaucrats in an intelligence agency deny brave soldiers a chance to tell the truth?

Toy Soldiers was my introduction to film. I certainly didn't think I was doing art by any stretch of the imagination.

Americans particularly after World War II tended to romanticize war because in World War II our cause was the cause of humanity and our soldiers brought home glory and victory and thank God that they did. But it led us to romanticize it to some extent.

Here's how I think of my money - as soldiers - I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home so there's more of them.

No country in history ever sent mothers of toddlers off to fight enemy soldiers until the United States did this in the Iraq war.

History is an account mostly false of events mostly unimportant which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves and soldiers mostly fools.

I think that some of our soldiers die in the battlefield and some come home to bad health and die prematurely just by the nature of the kind of business they're in.

Many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from serious long-term physical and mental health problems due to their service. It is unconscionable to cut the already limited health care benefits available to these brave men and women.

America's fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers that have paid the ultimate price for this cause as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed.

The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged but reported the misdeeds of the Indians.

Here's a news flash: No soldier gives his life. That's not the way it works. Most soldiers who make a conscious decision to place themselves in harm's way do it to protect their buddies. They do it because of the bonds of friendship - and it goes so much deeper than friendship.

Our soldiers have nobly fought to protect freedom since our country's birth and have fought to protect those that could not protect themselves even in foreign lands when called upon.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

I may be compelled to face danger but never fear it and while our soldiers can stand and fight I can stand and feed and nurse them.

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

Regard your soldiers as your children and they will follow you into the deepest valleys look on them as your own beloved sons and they will stand by you even unto death.

My dad and grandpa were in the army and as a country singer you're constantly playing at military bases all across the country and meeting soldiers and their families and hearing their stories.

With courage and character American soldiers continue to put themselves on the line to defend our freedom and so many have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Soldiers when committed to a task can't compromise. It's unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage absolute loyalty to others not letting the task go until it's been done.

No matter what you think about the Iraq war there is one thing we can all agree on for the next days - we have to salute the courage and bravery of those who are risking their lives to vote and those brave Iraqi and American soldiers fighting to protect their right to vote.

The military is a very cool world to write about. I went down to Ft. Benning Ga. for military training and I learned a lot about soldiers and officers and why they joined up and what their life has been like.