some that i made up and some that exist this is for jessica lynch, war memories. i have forgotten myself. who i was, i cannot now know who i have become is a stranger i have forgotten myself there are other things to lose in battle eyes and guts, other sacrifices before life. vilost myself. i am not who i was before this war, i am not she who no longer dares to be my mother is so happy with this worn body returned home. we pretend that i am as whole as i look. but at night when i stair through the dark at the hidden image in the mirror i cannot lie to the stranger i see. i have forgotten everything. except my affection for children, my service to country and my insatiable fear. [applause] >> sizing up the cost of war. >> what is left but the shoes. shoes scuffed and torn, no longer having feet to carry them, shoes empty now. work boots bearing mud from the last field he had plowed with his father. empty now. red sneakers with white stripes brought back fwr america by her oldest son given to her youngest, both of them immediately rung outside kicking the soccer bal

. >> as with jessica lynch pat tillman's case, where you have heroic actions and we find out it's completely what happened. and now with the bin laden raid. >> cenk: i remember when i used to be with the mainstream press i would say i don't believe the pentagon. people would be like, what? how can you believe that? that's point number one. and owens is clear the original count was not where near true as you saw there. number two, what do we think about owen releasing this information that the white house and the government is not happy about. they may prosecute well, that would be amazed by that if that were to happen. but listen to the disparity of brady manning who releases classified information and this is the only classif classified information on this book. >> i think he's right to be writing the book. they're cracking down on him because it's coming out on september 11th, two months before the election. it's disengenius of the author to sigh that he's surprised that it's political. they could have moved the date out later. it's not like his husband came out and said we lied like a rea

we, you know, we try to make jessica lynch who endured tremendous pain and discomfort as a prisoner, or pat tillman, a remarkably courageous young american. we try to make traditional heroes out of them. it doesn't work. if you look at the medals of honor in the current wars, i think only a couple of them have gone to people who survived. most of them have gone to people for -- not for assaulting an enemy force, but primarily for saving someone's life, you know, for jumping on a hand grenade to save others. just remarkably heroic and courageous action. it's just overwhelming. but we don't though how to handle these wars, we don't know 40 how to define the heroes of these wars. but everyone who steps out of a gate is being heroic over there, as far as i'm concerned. >> last question, sir. in past conflicts the civilian leadership has had military experience. today the civilian leadership is shrinking to almost a microscopic level of those who have served. how does that impact on the civilian decisions made for the military forces? >> yeah. it's an interesting question. you know, the c