A growing number of U.S. troops in Iraq are asking themselves the same questions: "What are we doing here? Why are we still here?"

Donald C. Hudson Jr., a private assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, is one of those soldiers. After watching his roommate die in a roadside bombing, Hudson spoke out.

I came here as part of the first wave of this so called "troop surge", but so far it has effectively done nothing to quell insurgent violence. I have seen the rise in violence between the Sunni and Shiite. This country is in the middle of a civil war that has been on going since the seventh century. Why are we here when this country still to date does not want us here?

Why does our president’s personal agenda consume him so much, that he can not pay attention to what is really going on here? [...]

I would just like to know what is the true reason we are here? This country poses no threat to our own. So why must we waste the lives of good men on a country that does not give a damn about itself?

Hudson deserves an answer. It's tragic his commander-in-chief can't give him one.