Dissident Voice

April 4, 2003

Dear Lord,

Your will be done on earth as in heaven. I am but an instrument of your will. I know that you have sent me and my brigade here to Iraq to right wrongs, liberate the oppressed and destroy evil. Thank you for giving my people the very best in fighting equipment, and protecting me and my fellow soldiers of righteousness with flak jackets, lots of helicopter gunships, satellite reconnaissance and all the best implements of modern warfare. We are here in Iraq to do your will and we thank you for the privilege. Please, lord, allow me to be an instrument of your will.

Lord, we know that some oppose the war and some even claim to have moral grounds for their opposition. If some terrible mistake has been made, and what I am doing is not right, please do not hold it against me Lord. I am just following orders, and if a correction needs to be made, please send it down through the normal chain of command. I trust that we are doing right, but I don't have that much time to read the Bible and investigate these things, and I am really depending on my faith in my country and my commander in chief to set me on the right course. I am not even that good at reading Lord, but maybe some day you can send me a Bible on DVD and I will try to find time to get better at knowing what it says.

And Lord, please don't let me die on that battlefield, unless it is absolutely necessary. I yield to your will, Lord, but I have a baby on the way and a wonderful wife back home. Lord, if it be your will, I will die today, and then I can go to heaven and be with grandma and grandpa and meet General Patton and Bear Bryant, but I really hope it is not necessary, Lord. I have lots of credit card bills, Lord and if I were to die, I don't know how Laurie and the kids would get by, and I hate to think of her remarrying and some other dude raising my children. So, please keep me alive, Lord.

And I have big plans after this war and my enlistment ends, Lord. I want to finish my degree and then get a lucrative job and make lots of money for my family so I can buy a new motorcycle and a skiboat for the kids. And I want to buy an SRV for my wife Lord. And I have lots of other things I want to buy and I want to be able to help my parents in their old age, Lord. And I want to help charities and do lots of good in this world with all the money I plan to make, Lord. Do please keep me alive.

So, Lord, make my aim straight. Bless my family and friends back home. Bless the Army, the Navy, the Marines and the Coast Guard. Lord, I hate to kill but with my training I am good at it and I pray that the killing I do is in harmony with your will. And after we get done killing, we are supposed to clean this country up and bring it to righteousness so the missionaries and the American businesses can arrive and help this country live and act the way you want people to live and act.

And Lord, I just remembered that I want to use my combat bonus to buy a nice new crib for the new baby. So, make sure the money gets credited to my account and the birth goes well if I am still stuck here in the godawful place come August when the baby is due.

Thanks Lord for everything.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen

Stan Moore lives in San Geronimo, CA. He can be contacted at: hawkman11@hotmail.com