Why do the troops hate America so much?

And why do they insist on asking such mean questions of poor old Holy Joe?

Spc. David Williams, 22, of Boston, Mass., had two note cards in his pocket Wednesday afternoon as he waited for Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Williams serves in the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., the first of the five "surge" brigades to arrive in Iraq, and he was chosen to join the Independent from Connecticut for lunch at a U.S. field base in Baghdad.

The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions for the senator.

He wrote them all down. At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:

"When are we going to get out of here?"

And barring an exit strategy, the troops also wanted to know when they might be able to expect some armored Humvees, and when they might get some body armor more suited to hot weather. You know, stuff like that.

No word on that exit strategy so far, but Joe did get a nice pair of sunglasses.