God, I hate this war.

Last night I came across a CNN article entitled "Boy beaten to death while mother serves in Iraq". Take a look:

CALUMET CITY, Illinois (AP) -- A man beat his girlfriend's 4-year-old son to death after she left the boy in his care while she was deployed to Iraq, police said.

Donnell Parker, 23, was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the death of Cameron Smith. The boy was found dead in his bed Thursday in a suburb south of Chicago.

Parker told police he beat the boy, but would not say why, said Calumet City police Chief Patrick O'Meara. It was not immediately known if Parker had an attorney.

Cameron was punched in the head, stomach and chest, and whipped with a belt from Tuesday to Wednesday evening, O'Meara said. An autopsy found he died of blunt-force trauma to the abdomen and head, O'Meara said.

The boy's 7-year-old sister and 8-year-old brother had also been in Parker's care, O'Meara said. They were put in the custody of their maternal grandparents after Cameron was found dead. Cameron's mother, Sgt. Lavanda Smith, 28, was headed back to Illinois Friday after spending only 10 hours at her new duty station in Iraq.

She was called to active duty in April with her Army National Guard unit and was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, on May 12 in preparation for deployment, said Lt. Col. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, an Illinois National Guard spokeswoman.

Family members said Cameron's father, Gary Smith Jr., 27, had been deployed to Iraq last August and last saw his three children on a brief leave in January.

Okay. First of all, the National Guard should not be serving overseas. They're supposed to defend the homeland and help out during natural disasters. Secondly, there really ought to be law that a child can't have TWO parents deployed to Iraq. If one parent is deployed, the other ought to be automatically exempt. Third, what on earth are we thinking sending the mothers of small children to war anyhow? Common sense, people. Common sense.

P.S. You know something else? We ought to require parenting classes and anger management classes for every young person before he or she can have a driver's license. That really might help us prevent a lot of child abuse.