My Christmas note of good cheer and happiness to all of you would not be complete without recalling our country's troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and so many other places that must seem to them to be miles and, in some cases, centuries away from home.

Having lost a relative of my own in The Great War of 1914-1918, I am reminded of the well known Christmas 1914 story of how bitter enemies found Christmas together in "no man's land" and, for just a moment in time - soldiers and officers alike, from both sides, set aside war and politics, lowered their weapons and extended to one another the hand of goodwill, peace, love and Christmas fellowship.

My Christmas wish for all our troops is that this story ( http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/denson4.html ) might, in its own 2006 way, repeat itself in places like Baghdad, Fallujah, Tikrit, Nasiriyah and Mosul with the many warring sides setting aside their differences and finding in each other - their common humanity and likeness. Oh, that this were possible!