Okay we hear you.. you are hurting really bad.. and yes our culture does have the higheset divorce rate.. also the highest success rate in various medical interventions,, a great success rate in number of student who attend post secondary education.. with education comes choices.. yes we are too easy to throw it all away but .... would you rather what our parent did... allow abuse.. turn a blind eye..... be miserable?

These things happened back then .. only people lived in tolerance and not necessarily happily....

You are defending our right to be selfish idiots who don't even know how good we have it. You defend our right to be stupid. I thank you very much for doing that.

it is because a lot of people do not put God in there life , it is a what's in it for me world. Instead of what he wanted for us. we need to get back to that , all the other problems would self correct to some degree.God should be first and everything else after. I do not mean to preach or force anyone to be religious , but if we lived our lives the way he wanted us to and put him first a lot of this would go away.

I understand your pain. But it may be time to quit wallowing in it and man-up. Don't allow this much control over yourself by someone that doesn't really deserve it.

I hate to bring up cliche's. But how many movies have you seen where the father is estranged from his daughter because of the mother. Quite a few.

In the end, all you can do is create a new life for yourself so that when your daughter is older, she will appreciate that you are there for her. Like me, you're going to have to forget about the first few years. The system is against us for that.

It does come back in waves. So you may start feeling a bit better and then the anger comes back. It will take a long time. And please don't make the mistake of taking a drink to make it better. It only makes you cry.

And what countries do you compare with Lost? In what western country would the standards, values and morals be higher? I've been around enough and every country/culture has its perks and faults. There is good and bad people everywhere. You defend this country because you are a patriot and proud of it! Don't give up that pride just because you are hurt.

One of the reasons that our divorce rate is so High is that we frown more heavily on adultery than other nations.

Europeans laugh at us for having such a problem with our "puritanical" stance on monogamy.

In the South American culture, the men have their "freedoms".

There are reasons for divorce, here, that make sense to Us.

I do understand your bitterness, I was very politically active, and backed away from many things that I was involved in...I was sick of what I saw as Failure to protect basic Family Rights...my children were "lost" and I no longer cared, either.

Disenchantment can change an entire life course.

You are serving your country, for freedom, for whats right, hell you're doing it for our rights.
High as the divorce rate is it does not devalue the citizens of the country and that is who you are serving.

Everyone should thank you b/c if everyone said why bother then nothing would get accomplished. You may not see it but in the long run you are doing more than most of us ever will. You are making a difference and proving that democracy and free will still carry some weight in this world.

If you are still discouraged know that you are serving your country for hope, not just hope that the war will end but hope that some day society will be back on track.

If it was reason you were looking for, I just gave it to you. God bless and thank you for your courage, bravery, sense of right and wrong and for your sense of duty.

I agree with Dun4Now, we have become so far removed from what God's perfect plan is for us. When we put Him first, everything else flows from that place of perfection.

Also, LostAndTorn, you are fighting for me. You are fighting for my right to make friends like you. You are fighting for my right to marry the "wrong" man, and my right to find God's man for me. You are fighting for my right to reach out in my darkest hour and find someone who understands. You are fighting for my right to attain all God has for me in this life. You are fighting for my right to be and do all His best. You fight for my right to be wrong and my right to be right. You fight for my right to give up my rights.

Thank you for doing so much for this stranger. You will not know, this side of eternity, the impact you have made on your world.

c'mon Tj.....

you are well aware of why you are serving. you know if you didn't "want" to, that you still would. you know that you and others like you are stronger in certain areas than most of us. you know that your shoulders carry a part of our burden because they can, and that means something to you. it's a duty and a responsibility but you realize the honor in carrying it out. what you may not always realize is the appreciation that we have for that..... and still you serve, because you don't need that, you just know you need to. strength Tj, inner strength, that's why. Thank You.

Take a look at most of the people on this website. That is what you are fighting for, they deserve it.

As for the others... there are some that do not deserve it, but that is a fact of life that you cannot change. It has always been like that.

Win some, lose some. The wins are worth it, though.

Your wife may not appreciate you but all of us here on DS do. Thank you so much for serving our country. Without good and honorable men like you we would not enjoy all the good things in our lives that we enjoy now. We are proud of you and know that you will get through all of this. It is just so overbearing most of the time. We all certainly know where you are coming from.

We STILL have the Finest Country, and System around...sorry for my grouse, earlier.

Is there any type of Family Leave that you could take for this, without having it reflect on you?

I am sorry that a man so dedicated to serving our country has to come to this realization. You are right. It is time for morality to make a comeback. It is time for people to start behaving decently again, and to hang in there when things get tough.

But this is a "if it feels good do it" kind of hippie morality that has invaded and overtaken our good sense. I hope that love and happiness comes to you to restore your faith in humanity. I appreciate what you stand for. I wish there were more like you.

Lost you are serving your country for the same reason I served our country, For the rights of every person to live their life in freedom, and to have that choice!

And if that doesn't get you through this, then you are serving for your Ranger buddies. Your Brothers in Arms. And you are serving all of us here too. That is who and why you are serving. You are serving because you DO love your country! Because you DO care about your fellow human being and you are serving to protect this nation from foreign invaders. Because that IS the type of person you are!

LostAndTorn, you have to give yourself credit for doing what you are doing, too. You are out there doing what you do for a reason. Not all of us could do what you do.