I thought this story was going to be all about the old days.  I started to read it and got to like the second page and I was totally wrong.  It actually surprised me a little bit.  It started talking about his sons and his friends fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I thought that this part was very interesting..

“I am now the father of a young man who has far more character than I ever had.  I joined the Marines because I had to; he signed up after college because he felt he ought to.  He volunteered for an elite unit and has served in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  When I see images of Americans in the war zones, I think of my son and his friends, many of whom I have come to know and deeply respect.  When I opened this newspaper yesterday and read the front-page headline ‘9 G.I.’s Killed,’ I didn’t think in abstractions.  I thought very personally.”

I liked this because he is telling us exactly what he is feeling. He has had a huge change since he has been in the war.  I didn’t expect him to come out and say that he was a father in this story.  I just didn’t see it coming.

Thesis- “My attitude was the same as Dick Cheney’s: I was special, I had ‘other priorities.” Let other people do it.

I think that is the thesis because later on in the story he comes back to it.  He gives it support.