Senior Rachel Loucks-Emens knew that her fiancˇ was constantly in danger, but she had no idea when he was most at risk or what might happen to him.

Still, she tried to live her life normally.

Loucks-Emens is now married to Jeff Emens, who served in Iraq for a year before they were married. She says it became difficult for her to even watch the news.

"I'd hear '10 soldiers killed in a car bomb.' I'd pray for Jeff's safety, but when I prayed that he wasn't one of the 10, it felt like I was praying that someone else was," she said.

Emens served on active duty from November of 2003 to November of 2004 with the Third Brigade, Infantry Division, which is based from Fort Lewis.

Rachel said that it was extremely difficult to stay state side, constantly waiting to hear if Jeff was still alive.

"Every time a person would badmouth the military, I wanted to remind them that they had this right only because of sacrifices made by generations before them," she said.

On Jan. 10, President George W. Bush announced a plan to send 20,000 more men such as Jeff into Iraq.

In his speech, Bush said that the first priority is ensuring security in Iraq, especially in Baghdad. The city is the hub of the nation's chaos: 80 percent of sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of Baghdad.

In his speech, Bush said that past forces have had a particularly difficult time maintaining security around and within Baghdad. After forces moved away, however, insurgents would return to the neighborhood and continue their activities.

Bush's new mission is very specific, and said troops will work with Iraqi units to secure neighborhoods, to protect Iraqi civilians, and to ensure that when the U.S. pulls out, Iraqi forces will be able to keep Baghdad secure.

Emens said he doesn't think that 20,000 troops are enough to accomplish this goal. He has several friends who are currently in Iraq, and they are working much harder than they should have to.

He thinks that the number should be more like 100,000 soldiers.

Though Emens is very supportive of Bush's decision, not all soldiers trust the president, he said. Emens was very angry with Bush while in Iraq, he said.

"When you're over there, you're not thinking about the big picture. You're like, 'I'm dodging bullets, and I want to go home.' It's a lot easier to see the big picture when you get back."

He said the soldiers are split pretty evenly between those who trust Bush and those who do not.

Before Emens and his company were deployed, he said they were all pretty nervous.

"The only thing we knew about Iraq was from the news, and that looked pretty bad. We expected that kind of fighting to be going on everywhere; we didn't expect to be so bored -- for months and months at a time," he said.

"The worst part of serving was being away and being bored," he said.

"And losing people," Loucks-Emens added.

For the first part of Emens' year, his company moved around often. They were responsible for patrolling Samarra and some other small country villages in Iraq, he said. Later, the company acted as convoy security; they would escort convoys of food and other supplies from central Iraq to Baghdad.

During the last four months of his service, Emens said he and his company were stationed in Tal A Far, one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. In Tal A Far, small attacks were a daily occurrence. Emens remembers one week that was particularly violent.

Insurgents had tried to overtake the city. The United States brought in helicopters and more troops to bring the attacks to a stop. The attacks did indeed stop in response to the pressure, but as soon as the extra forces moved out, the attackers returned.

Emens is currently enlisted in the Washington National Guard and works as a security officer at night. Since the Washington National Guard recently returned from Iraq, it is improbable that they will get called back anytime soon.

Though Emens is glad that he likely won't return to Iraq, he said that serving for a year was a good experience.

"I have no regrets. It was one of the hardest times of my life, but hard times only make you get tougher," he said.

Emens said that while he was in Iraq, he found that the members of Iraqi forces shared similar goals as the United States. He said they want U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Professor of history Don Holsinger is a Mennonite who believes that as Christians we are called to seek non-volatile alternatives to war. Mennonites historically were one of the peace churches, like the Quakers, tending to oppose war in general and discourage members from partaking in war.

Holsinger says it makes more sense to him to actively pursue peace. Jesus commands us to be peacemakers in the Sermon on the Mount, he said.

"There may still be dangers against which we must defend ourselves. I'm all in favor of defending ourselves. The question is what the moral and logical way to do so is," he said.

"The way to deal with a small band of international outlaws would have been to form an international coalition to isolate, apprehend, and prosecute them under international law," Holsinger said.

Rather than forming an international coalition, he said, the U.S. invaded a country that we believed had protected Al Qaeda. The war in Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11. To Holsinger, going to war in Iraq was foolish and extreme.

Holsinger said that he thinks Bush has pretty much given up winning the war in Iraq, and sending more troops is another illustration that our foreign policy is in disarray.

"Sending 20,000 more troops is just a drop in the bucket. I think it's an attempt to delay the inevitable so that another president has to deal with the catastrophic quagmire we find ourselves in," he said.

The best way for Bush to support our troops is to be truthful with the American people, Holsinger said. The country needs to live up to the ideals in the Constitution and in the Declaration of Independence and live with integrity, not hypocrisy, when dealing with other nations. That, Holsinger said, is the best defense against terrorism.

Emens takes a different approach.

"Whether or not we started for the right reason, our responsibility is to leave there on the best terms possible, to make sure Iraq is stable before we leave. We're saving lives from a possible genocide or massacre," he said.

Emens said that here in America, we've become accustomed to the instant gratification of our desires. But rebuilding a nation from the ground up is not going to happen instantly -- our own nation took decades to build. We started the war, he said, and we should make sure that it ends on a good note.

The only questionable decision Bush has made, Emens said, was going into Iraq in the first place. Everything he's done since then has only been to make the situation better.

Freshman Kate Harline is unhappy about the additional troops being sent to Iraq. She compares the situation to the United States' involvement in Vietnam.

"If we're trying to solve the problem, then it's not going to help to send more troops into Iraq," she said.

"I'm certainly not thrilled about 20,000 more troops going over there," Loucks-Emens said. "But the bravery that I've witnessed by troops and their families is certainly something we could all learn from and pray for in ourselves."