"In the early morning hours of May 10, one month to the day from my 30th birthday, I and 12 other men were attacked in a well-executed roadside ambush in south-east Baghdad. We were attacked with small-arms fire, a rocket-propelled grenade, and two well-placed roadside bombs. These roadside bombs nearly destroyed one of our Hummers and riddled my friends with shrapnel, almost killing them. They would not have had a scratch if they had the 'Up Armour' kits on them. So where was [George] W [Bush] on that one?

"It's just so ridiculous, which leads me to my next point. A Blackwater contractor makes $15,000 [?8,400] a month for doing the same job as my pals and me. I make about $4,000 [?2,240] a month over here. What's up with that?

"Beyond that, the government is calling up more and more troops from the reserves. For what? Man, there is a huge fucking scam going on here! There are civilian contractors crawling all over this country. Blackwater, Kellogg Brown & Root, Halliburton, on and on. These contractors are doing everything you can think of from security to catering lunch!

"We are spending money out the ass for this shit, and very few of the projects are going to the Iraqi people. Someone's back is getting scratched here, and it ain't the Iraqis'!

"My life is left to chance at this point. I just hope I come home alive."

The above is a tiny snipet from the flood of letters sent to Michael Moore by U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq. "Dear Mike, Iraq sucks" at the Guardian Unlimited website.