Serving Our Country

Keith's sister Karen sent us this recent photo of her son, our nephew Steven, who is serving in Baghdad. Up until his assignment in Iraq, Steven was stationed on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and he requested a transfer to Afghanistan or Iraq. Steven is a delightful young man, so intelligent and eager to serve. He is really into the study of foreign relations, and enjoys learning different languages and cultures. He studied for a while at San Diego State, then followed his brother's footsteps into the military.

Steven is our third family member to serve in Iraq since the war began; my niece's husband and my elder nephew have both served; the former returned for a second tour and then back twice more as a private contractor.

With our family's involvement in the war, I'm afraid that I have very little patience with war protestors or people getting down on the war who have never had family members involved. We also have several young people from our church who have been and are presently serving in Iraq as well. The American press seems to only be concerned with the body count and not with the excellent work our young men and women are doing for the people of Iraq. The Iraqi people are thankful for the presence of Americans, and leaving these good people in the midst of a nasty civil war by pulling out suddenly as Obama apparently suggests would be a horrible thing to do to the Iraqi people. They've had many years under a cruel dictator who didn't think twice before killing thousands, even millions of innocent people within his borders, and I think we ought to help mitigate their suffering in any way possible, including helping their government stabilize so that the Iraqi people can rule themselves in freedom and strength. And my family and many other families send their young people to do just that. The American people need to let them do their jobs as they willingly go into danger in order to serve our country.

And now I will step off my soapbox and put it back into its corner....