Matthew Valkovic described himself as a hawk. I notice he is majoring in international politics and history, but makes no mention of military service. I have one thing to say about those who favor war because they learned about it in a classroom: Try living it.

I found no great pleasure in watching Bosnian land mines explode in 2000. I spent the entire year there, and it wasn't exactly a hardship.

The war was over, no one shot at me personally, but I can't say I would endorse what I saw, either. My first day in country, I took the road trip from Tuzla to Sarajevo that I would later take many times throughout the year. I attempted to count the number of buildings that did not have any bullet holes in them. The total number I came up with was zero.

I did not relish walking through cemeteries that had been set aside for children killed in the war, and seeing a picture of, and a letter to, an 11-year-old girl at the foot of a marble cross.

I found no honor in shooing away poor children with burn scars who crowded around our vehicles before we could even shut the engines off.

My offer to every self-proclaimed "hawk" is this: There's still one open slot in my National Guard unit, and the office gossip is that we'll be going to Iraq within a year. If you sign up today, you can be finished with training and ready to deploy by the time we get orders. Otherwise, I'll merely offer a suggestion.

Regardless of which presidential candidate you support, supporting war as a general concept is not a very credible stance when you're not the one who has to fight it.