An Open Letter To Westboro Baptist Church

To the congregation of Westboro Baptist Church and Fred Phelps;
HI! This is a US Soldier, writing this letter from Iraq. If I was not here right now, at 2:18 in the morning, I would be back in the states without a job probably and homeless. I know this letter means nothing to your hate mongering group, because your group believes that everyone but your church goers are sinners. Well I have a message for you, because of past wars and current wars, you are able to live your life of hate and freely spew your hate and venom. I challenge your group to do what we do 24/7, eat mediocre food, lose sleep, hear about the deaths of fellow soldiers. I dare you to have to decide whether or not the loud boom that startles you out of a dead sleep is out going or incoming, whether or not you are losing another friend to the war. I have missed 2 funerals since being deployed, missed my nephews birthdays, missed a friends wedding, missed my oldest nephew's transition from kid to teenager. I hear about holidays and see photos of what goes on, my life a small point stuck in time. I get my news 8 hours after it happens, i get movies from locals on horribly made dvds. I don't know what day it is, I just know when I wake up, when I am off, and cant talk about what happens or what I see. Right now I am currently unsure of when I leave the country, I may not be home for my birthday. When i go to bed, it is 95 degrees at 8 in the morning, and gets up to 110 that day. When I wake up for night shift, i look forward to a horrific internet connection and barely able to talk to my family. If some one dies out here, i can not tell my parents or family who, or what happened, because we blackout all nonsecure comms so that way the media does not get word before the family does. I challenge you to be a soldier and learn the real cost of freedom, the freedom of speech your group abuses. Come over here and sleep in tents with bad air conditioning on cots that are not comfortable, having to haul 100 pounds of gear around in 90 degree temperatures, and that is 90 degrees at night. I implore you Fred Phelps, to come over here for a year and walk 5 miles daily just going to chow, just to eat the same thing you have for 6 months. This is not a whining letter, this letter is an open challenge to your group, come, live our life that we live by choice for a year in foreign country with no family.

Sincerely,
A US Soldier.