"In the beginning I was into this; we all were. [But] we haven't found anything, no weapons of mass destruction, no Saddam, no nothing. And the people there hate us. If we were rolling through a town and they were cheering, hell yeah, it would make us feel better. But when they're not cooperating and throwing rocks and giving us evil looks, we don't want to be there. We're conquerors to them. It wasn't supposed to be like that. ... I hate it over there, I hate it." - Specialist Castillo, while on leave from Iraq.

"I don't give a damn about Rumsfeld. All I give a damn about is going home. The only thing his visit meant for us was we had to clean up a lot of mess to make the place look pretty. And he didn't even look at it anyway." - Specialist Rue Gretton, on Rumsfeld’s visit to Tikrit.

"If I got to talk to Rumsfeld I'd tell him to give us a return date. We've been here six months and the rumor is we'll be here until at least March. This is totally, totally uncalled for." - Sgt. Green, Tikrit, Iraq

For more words from the frontlines, check out Traveling Soldier, an anti-war newsletter for people on active-duty.