TRINITY — The call came at 1:28 p.m. Friday, the caller ID cryptically reading, "U.S. Government — Honolulu."
Larry Dalla Betta, just getting home from a youth football game, answered in the kitchen.
"Is this Larry?" an operator asked. Dalla Betta said yes. Then he heard another voice, speaking from half a world away, sudden, strained:
"Dad, I've been hit. I've lost both my legs."
"Where are you?" Dalla Betta asked. "Where are you?"
"I'm in Afghanistan," his son said. "I can't talk. They're taking me to Germany. I can contact you in 24 hours."
Dalla Betta began to talk. The line went dead.
He screamed. "Justin! Justin!" He started to cry. Justin's siblings Larry Jr., 11, and Nicole, 5, started to cry, too.
Now read this, and tell me what you think:
Ed Rendell, the media-friendly governor of Pennsylvania, has a surprisingly stark quote in USA Today this morning questioning President Obama's decision to continue the war in Afghanistan:
"I question the value of us being there at all," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in an interview. "I have a great deal of faith in President Obama and in (Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton and I want to believe that their strategy is the right one for the country. But I'm not sure 10 years from now and with all that money invested, things are going to be measurably better."
He argues war funding would be better used to build schools, roads and bridges at home.
President Obama, how do you ask a man to lose both legs for a mistake?
