My innocence with respect to my trust of the government was lost shortly after September 11th. A few weeks after the attacks, I was deployed to Iraq's border in northern Kuwait. Before the deployment I was extensively briefed on Iraq's capabilities (or should I say lack thereof) by a military intelligence officer. It was emphasized that Iraq possessed nothing in the way of chemical, biological, or nuclear armaments. Needless to say, the pre-war propaganda spewing from the Bush administration regarding WMD befuddled me when I returned home in 2002. Obviously, smething wasn't adding up. I had just returned from an operation that briefed me on Iraq's capabilities and here was the Bush administration spouting off information that I hadn't been privy to. Someone was lying to me. While in Baghdad, two years later, the weapons inspectors were called off which unveiled the liars in all of their nefarious splendor. Being sent off to die without cause or honor offended me greatly (to put it mildly) and I was never to see the world through the same eyes. I immersed myself in literature and learned as much as I could about past anti-war movements, the sordid history of our government, and matters of the sort. Everyday since has been like a personal renaissance.