You know that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, because it might come true"? We see examples of that again and again in life. During the war in Iraq, Hampton Sides, a journalist who had been slated to be "embedded" with one of our frontline Marine battalions, gave an interview on NRP (National Public Radio). At almost the last possible moment, Sides decided not to go with the Marines, but instead to report from Central Command in Qatar.

The interviewer asked Sides when he began having doubts about going in with the Marines, and Sides said that it was when he was receiving training about the use of his gas mask. Knowing that nausea is often one of the first symptoms of a chemical attack, he had asked the military trainer what to do if he threw up in his mask. The trainer didn't ha…