On this 7-year anniversary of the tragic 9-11 events, I'm reminded of how, for a very short time, we as a country were united under a cause. A large part of the world stood behind us. (Other parts of the world celebrated). We as Americans had a common goal, a common enemy. We stopped fighting with each other so much and realized all life is valuable. Life went on however, and now we've found ourselves back in the same old ruts. I guess thats just humankind.

I recently was sent a video of a veteran of the Iraq War tearing into Barak Obama for disrespecting the soldiers who lost their lives by calling the War a mistake. I think its a much bigger disrespect to our troops to expect to continue to lay down their lives, lose limbs, and remain far removed from the homes and families fighting in a War that we weren't ready for. Did it "need" to happen...eventually. Did it need to happen when it did? Absolutely not!

We had our eye on the prize, catching Bin Laden...then we lost focus...and when we did, we lost the support of the many countries who stood behind us after 9/11. Since then, the economy has tanked, we've spent BILLIONS, lost many more lives, and lost respect of many of our allies. It was an ill-timed occupation, and my heart goes out to the troops and their families. You all should be proud that you are doing your job and I commend you. I do however believe that I am not paying you any disrespect but saying you shouldn't have had to go..at least not now. You're now, however, there and I look forward to your safe return as soon as possible.