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someone—besides themselves.
    After the CBS Evening News aired a piece about me and Lava, people with nothing better to do (why else would they bother?) sent comments to a CBS blog, some calling for my return to active duty so that I could go before a court-martial for my crime: violating a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided regulation. They said I was a disgrace to the corps and to the country. That hurt, particularly in light of Dick Cheney’s—and others’—Vietnam deferments. Cheney was the biggest hawk in the administration, and no one questioned his authority. CBS has removed all the critical comments from its Web site, which I think is a shame. The insanity should be there for all to witness.
    From a YouTube viewer (proves a point, I think): “u ppl need therapy for real . . . 100s of innocent ppl dying everyday in iraq and ur concerned about a fucking DOG??? ur a sick puppy whoever spent so much time on this in a war torn human rights disaster!!!”
    I was also subject to some personal attacks in online book reviews. Not critiques of my book, but personal attacks. Several readers suggested that the entire story of finding and rescuing Lava was contrived. As in, made up.
    Check out this piece of brilliant literary analysis: “I came to conclusion that there was no dog, and dog kind of represents the concept of hope that after US departure from Iraq, Iraqi people can live in peace, and LT Colonel was a savior, and was trying to give hope to Iraqi people. It is kind of metaphor.” Genius, don’t you think?
    I’ve been accused of many things, such as spending six months playing with a dog in the sand. Tell me: How many of these critics were there when the smelly fuckers we were fighting were shooting at me and trying to blow me up? What? I can’t hear you! That’s what I thought.
    We Marines don’t whine about our job. It’s the most important one that exists. We protect America. We protect the underdog. And above all, we protect one another. So when a well-dressed woman at a party looks at me pityingly, it’s all I can do not to draw on my inner Jack Nicholson—remember him as the Marine colonel in A Few Good Men ?—and remind her that I do the protecting she and her friends are all afraid to do. That to me, honor and loyalty are more than just words, they are a way of life that I’m willing to risk with my own. I’m not alone in this—all the way back to Odysseus, warriors have had to grapple with civilians who simply don’t understand combat, who don’t appreciate what’s going on during the day-to-day existence of a soldier at war. Then we return and find we’re expected to pretend that listening to our neighbor complain about our uncut lawn is actually worth a minute of time.

    How does this square with the realization that I am back? I’m not shipping out again as I’ve done so many times. I’m here to stay, and taking a gander at some of the bad news showering down on us returning troops, I could definitely be in trouble.
    I’d like to blame the entitled trainer at the gym, or the barista with attitude at Starbucks, but I probably also need to reconcile these facts in my mind: Soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely than the average person to abuse alcohol and drugs, get divorced, and commit suicide. Military health care officials report seeing a spectrum of psychological issues, and a Pentagon task force gives the following statistics: Nearly half of returning National Guard members, 38 percent of soldiers, and 31 percent of Marines report mental health problems. 3 That’s a lot of pain. Within the suicide data, one age group stands out: vets aged twenty through twenty-four who served in the “war on terror.” Their suicide rates are two to four times higher than found among civilians the same age. 4 Twenty-year-olds should not be committing