During a C-SPAN appearance this morning, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol was confronted by a military wife living in Ft. Hood, TX, who called in to criticize him for “pushing the war.”

The woman explained the incredible stress of having her husband deployed in Iraq:

I-m sure when your head hits the pillow you have a luxury of dreaming about anything that your mind will allow you to dream about… I sleep with the phone under the pillow. My kids - if someone rings the doorbell, instead of normal kids they freeze. And they-re in elementary school. You all don-t understand. We are military people but we are people, too. And the stress that we are under is tremendous.

While she spoke, Kristol appeared uncomfortable, looking downward and scratching markings into a piece of paper.

The caller also told Kristol that he was a “liar” for claiming that it’s “mostly the insurgents attacking us,” versus members of the Iraqi population. “They don-t want us there,” she said. “I understand you truly believe what you-re saying but it’s not working. We can-t want it for them more than they want it for themselves.”

Kristol offered little in response, using the caller’s criticism of the stress she’s under to advocate for a larger Army. He concluded, “The strains on family life are obviously very real…and I hope we do more to deal with that.”

See Kristol Video and remainder of story at Think Progress