Thursday, October 27, 2005

Some things to think about after the 2,000th American death in Iraq

I guess its about time that I added my 2 cents to the news of the last couple of days. It has happened, we have now lost our 2,000th soldier in Iraq. I feel for the families of all of those soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that have lost their lives or had them forever changed.

Mine was forever changed the day I left my family for 13 months, that's 13 months that I will never get back with my 70 year old parents, my beautiful wife or my 9 year old son. I am forever changed by the events of my time in Baghdad and the things that I have seen. Some may say that I lost a year, I say that I lived for that year.

There are children and families in Iraq that are able to vote, to choose their own future because of what my brothers in arms and I have done. Do not make this political, do not try to divide our country as it was during Viet Nam. What we are doing is just, it is necessary and it should have been done a long time ago.

Do not cry for our service men and women, hold them high for what they are doing. Keep them close to your hearts and offer them thanks. If we were afraid to pay the price to spread freedom and democracy the French, Belgians, English and most of Europe would be called Germans. China and the far east would be a part of Japan. We didn't stop because it was hard or we had lost too many people during that struggle, we continued to fight the good fight and we made the world a better place. Germany and Japan were about as much of a threat to us back then as Iraq or any other "enemy" of our is now.

According to the D-Day Museum, we suffered 1,465 killed in action during the Normandy landings. On Iwo Jima during the 36 day battle for the island we lost 6,000 American soldiers.
During the Civil War at a place called "Little Round Top" the armies of the north and the south suffered 51,000 casualties during fighting that lasted only 3 days.

Freedom is not free, it is bought and paid for by the people that have the will to leave their homes and their families, to go and knowingly put them selves at risk not only to protect their current family but to protect future generations. To offer a future not only to Americans but to every person on this planet.

Today you hurt for the loss of a loved one either dead or far away, do not cry for them, support them and help to keep the memory of their deeds alive for future generations to look back on so that they may decide if it was just or not.


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