soldiers' letters and emails home

The Guardian, Saturday 2 December 2006 

Dispatches

It is nearly four years since the invasion of Iraq and the bloodshed on the streets is worse than ever. As a timetable emerges for the withdrawal of British troops, we publish extracts from soldiers' letters and emails home, spanning the whole of the war, that reveal the realist of life on the frontlin.

The private

Phillip Hewett writes to his mother and to his sister, Niki

May 2005 Hey mother, i m fine just really tired and worn out. we went on a patrol the other day for 8 hours and we sat down after about 4 hours for a breather and some old guy shot his ak47 at us because he thought we were terrorists (old damn fool), it was such a rush. i dived into a brick trench nearly broke my bloody kneck hahaha, it was sooo funny. in the end it was all handshakes and apologies tho' no 1 was hurt, every where you go out here there are dead dogs and donkeys on the roads, how disgusting eh, neway I LOVE YOU and will write again soon mwah x x x x x x x x x x x x

read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/dec/02/military.iraq

What type of letter would you write?

How do you feel when you read these stories?