Amidst Military Homecoming, Support For Future Iraq Deployments

FORT HOOD, Texas., Nov 30, 2006 — -- Hundreds of soldiers returned to Fort Hood this week after more than a year in Iraq, and while they fully expect to return to battle next year as part of the ongoing rotations of a long and difficult war, some of their famlies are content to keep the troops deployed.

It is not easy for their loved ones at home, so some might assume that bringing all of the troops home from Iraq, quickly and for good, would be a great relief to those families.

But that is not how many of them see it.

"I don't think it would be in our best interest to pull out right now," said Lynn James whose husband Randy is in his second deployment to Iraq.

He's overseas along with the husbands of many of her friends, who all worry about the consequences of giving up on the fight. Among them is Dawn Dial, who misses her husband Ethan terribly, but is certain he wants to see the mission through.

"I know all of us want our husbands home and everybody else who has family members over there, but I do think we need to stay until it's done," Dial said.

"If you pull them out, you're just going to have to go back again and you'll basically be starting all over again," agreed Anna Marie Garcia, a young military wife whose husband deployed to Iraq in October.

James acknowledged that many Americans have lost patience with the war and don't understand her resolve, especially in the face of escalating violence in Iraq. But she is convinced, based on her husband's reports from Baghdad, that there is hope which she is holding dearly.

"Every day, when I say my prayers for the safety of my husband and our troops, I say a prayer for the Iraqi people, because that's the only way we'll be able to pull out is when they can stand on their own," James said.

Bridgit Lawson says her conviction that her husband Darren and his fellow troops need to stay in Iraq for now is grounded in a clear understanding of the risks. "My husband says it's very obvious that it's a war zone; he can tell that there's danger there," she said.