Look around you in the news today, the fact that there are 12 million illegal aliens in our country, the majority of which are seeking a better life for themselves and their families should cause each one of us to pause and take inventory of our lives and the blessing we have been given as citizens of this nation.
For certain, the desire for a better life doesn't give one a pass to flaunt the laws of our free society, but it should be instructive to those of us who nonchalantly take our blessings for granted. You can be certain; those citizens serving in uniform do not take their US citizenship for granted. Serving in a foreign land rapidly makes precious the blessings of home.
On another note of blessing, as of today, the loss of American lives in Iraq is on track to become the lowest monthly loss since February 2004 when 20 men and women gave their lives in Iraq. While we would be careful to not read too much in this we pray it is the beginning of a trend where Iraqis pick up the terrible honor of protecting their freedoms won at the cost of American, British, and other coalition lives.
Certainly the Iraqi police and military have lost many lives as they have struggled to organize, train, police and fight their war, to date and estimated 12,159, but, as in our own fight for freedom from the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to 1783 when the British left their final North American military post in New York. By some counts 4,435 combat deaths took place in that crude war.
To be sure, men have become more efficient in the effectiveness of their military weapons, but in this war the greatest factor is the willingness of the enemy to use powerful, crudely effective weapons while ignoring the conventions of war.
While American sensibilities and the penchant of the typical American for a quick solution to difficult problems has caused many to waver, the enemy remains resolute in his determination to drive us from Iraq and Afghanistan, and establish their operations in those countries from which to launch renewed attacks on American soil and our citizens.
Be sure to visit Front Line Report
