AND YOUR BEING HERE PROVES WHAT, EXACTLY, MA'AM?

Other than the fact you don't quite get it that your adult daughter is trying to serve her country in the midst of a war.

Anabel Valencia crossed oceans, deserts, and half the globe to see her daughter, Specialist Giselle Valencia, a truck driver with Task Force Ironhorse here in Saddam Hussein's old neighborhood.

But you just don't drop in at a heavily guarded US military base in a war zone, even if your child is on active duty inside.

"Your daughter's on a mission," an incredulous MP holding a fierce German shepherd advised Valencia Friday.

"I can wait," came the firm reply from the Tucson teacher's aide, 51 and a mother of three. "I came this far. I can wait a bit longer."

Valencia, born in Los Angeles, was one of a handful of parents who traveled to Iraq last week to see their active-duty children.

Sponsoring the trip was Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based activist group that opposed the US invasion and is eager to spread its antiwar message. None of the parents had formal military clearance to visit their children.