Five Years and Over 4000 Deaths Later

By Allen Bacon
Editor
Bosco: The Blog

It's hard to believe that the War in Iraq turns five years old this week.

I will not enter an opinion over if this war is the right and just thing to do. The readers are more than welcome to weigh in on this. The reason why I've decided not to do this myself is because any questioning of the current administration's stand could be misconstrued as non-support of our brave men and women who have put their lives on the line for the rest of us.

The men and women in our Armed Services are far better than me. I would not be a good soldier. I know that about myself. I don't have what it takes to be a soldier. It takes a very special person to do this. Keep in mind none of our soldiers are sent there against their will. This is a volunteer effort now. While the rest of us have the freedom to do whatever we want in this country, we need to keep in mind the men and women that have made that possible, whether it be the close to 4000 soldiers that have died over the past five years or all the soldiers that have died in the past wars.

I want to believe our current Commander In Chief had just reason for sending our brave men and women into harms way in Iraq. And since he is the Commander in Chief we should in theory support his decision. If we don't support that, we really don't support our troops and we look bad to the rest of the world. That doesn't mean we shouldn't constantly analyze our current position against the original objective... whatever it was. We need to always do this and make adjustments if necessary. And maybe that means we call it a day in Iraq.

So on this five year anniversary of the war in Iraq, I want to urge our readers not to forget our men and women in harms way fighting for our freedom. Recently I was sent a "chain letter" which was an excellent photo essay on our soldiers. Usually I don't pay attention to chain letters but because the friend that sent it to me never had sent me anything like it in the whole time I have known her, I paid attention and I was touched. I am going to show some of these photos and message over the next few days. If you've seen it, you know what I am talking about. If you have not seen it, I want you to use it to reflect and remember our brave men and women.