I first read about Saddam Hussein's execution about 10 hours ago. When I woke up this morning, there were plenty of pictures and videos plastered all over the internet. I really thought that I would feel joy or some other positive feeling over this man's death, but instead I just feel sick.

It's not that he didn't deserve what he got. The man was a brutal dictator who committed horrible atrocities against his own countrymen. He raised two sons and encouraged them to do the same. He killed his daughters' husbands after assuring them that they were pardoned. He was definitely a guilty man.

I'm certainly not a peace activist. Like most soldiers, I see the value in what we are doing in the middle east, and I understand that trade embargos and idle threats rarely initiate change on their own. Violence was required to depose the horrific leadership in Iraq, and the military presence continues to safeguard its current leadership and public servants.

So many lives have been lost, whether soldier or civilian, American or Iraqi, adult or child, noble or evil. For me, watching it all happen hasn't made me numb to the value of human life; rather, it has had the opposite effect. I will deploy one last time and do my job to the best of my ability. I love my country and support her endeavor to bring opportunity and choices to oppressed peoples around the world.

I just wish the killing would stop.