Yesterday's Washington Post had a riveting article about a soldier who was wounded a few months ago by a mine. Two others in the Humvee he was in were killed in the same blast. Terry Rodgers describes the explosion and its immediate aftermath in a very matter of fact style.

But the best part of the article is towards the end. At one point, when he was recuperating in the hospital, a nurse asked Rodgers if he wanted to meet President Bush, who was touring the facility.

And Rodgers' response? "I don't want anything to do with him," he explains. "My belief is that his ego is getting people killed and mutilated for no reason -- just his ego and his reputation. If we really wanted to, we could pull out of Iraq. Maybe not completely but enough that we wouldn't be losing people -- at least not at this rate. So I think he himself is responsible for quite a few American deaths."

That pretty well sums it up.