Our troops are the world’s greatest humanitarians and liberty’s last best hope; we must stop short-changing their efforts. I believe that is Michael Yon’s message in his Wall Street Journal op-ed:

Soldiers everywhere are paid, and good generals know it is dangerous to mess with a soldier’s money. The shoeless heroes who froze at Valley Forge were paid, and when their pay did not come they threatened to leave — and some did. Soldiers have families and will not fight for a nation that allows their families to starve. But to say that the tribes who fight with us are “rented” is perhaps as vile a slander as to say that George Washington’s men would have left him if the British offered a better deal.
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The Iraqi central government is unsatisfactory at best. But the grass-roots political progress of the past year has been extraordinary — and is directly measurable in the drop in casualties.

This leads us to the most out-of-date aspect of the Senate debate: the argument about the pace of troop withdrawals. Precisely because we have made so much political progress in the past year, rather than talking about force reduction, Congress should be figuring ways and means to increase troop levels. For all our successes, we still do not have enough troops. This makes the fight longer and more lethal for the troops who are fighting. To give one example, I just returned this week from Nineveh province, where I have spent probably eight months between 2005 to 2008, and it is clear that we remain stretched very thin from the Syrian border and through Mosul. Vast swaths of Nineveh are patrolled mostly by occasional overflights.

Me:

Those who say this is George Bush’s war are fooling themselves. We have it to do, this War on Terror, now, maybe later, but surely for generations against this enemy. Like war and warriors or not, hippie or hawk, America will fight, be forced to fight, or die as a nation. That is the reality of this enemy’s intent.

Calling for the end to the ever-oscillating size of our military is no jingle from the peanut gallery. I was there, in uniform, during both the post-Vietnam and post-Gulf War reductions. Knee jerking overall troop levels up and down plays all too well during political campaigns (the post-Gulf War “peace dividend” was a surge that became an avalanche). Arid regions and deserts are hard to fight and maintain in for both men and equipment.

However long it takes, we need to finish the fight in Iraq, stay strong in the region, and win for their sake as well as our own.

Note: Read more from Michael at his web site MichaelYon-online.com

Regardless of what anyone believes of the need to invade Iraq, the reality is we did invade and removed Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. Five years ago today, Baghdad fell. Families United writes of remembering:

April 9, 2008 marks the 5th Anniversary of the Fall of Baghdad. Please, join the Host Committee, comprising the Adjutant General of the United States, as Americans commemorate the sacrifice of our Fallen, and as we celebrate our Armed Forces, our troops our veterans, our military families. The families of our Iraq and Afghanistan fallen heroes, who lay at rest at Arlington National Cemetery, are especially warmly invited to this observance, as we pay special tribute to them.

In celebrating the hope given to the Iraqi people because of the courageous actions of the Armed Forces of the United States and Multinational Forces, we honor those, who have made this possible, especially those, who have given their lives for freedom.

Freedom for our families in the United States and Freedom for the families in Iraq, our women, men and, above all, our children – America’s future, Iraq’s future. Our shared future. As H.E. Mr. Abdul al Qadir al Mufriji, the Iraqi Defense Minister stated, upon presenting the Iraqi Defense Ministry Plaque to America’s Iraq Fallen in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, 6 March 2008: “As Iraqis, we are eternally grateful to America’s fighting sons and daughters for restoring to us the dignity of a free people. America’s fallen heroes, along with their fallen Iraqi comrades, may have been robbed of their future, but in laying down their lives they have handed us ours. We shall remember them, their names forever inked in the history books of the new and democratic Iraq.”

A Joint U.S.-Iraqi wreath-laying shall mark the highlight of the National Remembrance, with H. E. Mr. Samir Sumaida’ie, the Ambassador of Iraq to the United States, confirmed as principal celebrant. States Ambassador Sumaida: “There is no ceremony capable of adequately conveying the gratitude of the Iraqi people for the American men and women who have sacrificed their lives for the people and freedom of Iraq. Iraqis will be eternally grateful. These heroes shall never be forgotten.”

Americans are called upon to join in a MOMENT OF NATIONAL REFLECTION on 9 April 2008, 5PM, EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. As the sun sets across the National Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery, the Dutch Carillion striking the hour, Americans are called upon TO HONK THEIR CAR HORNS in celebration, honor, and recognition of freedom and all those who have made it possible! We encourage you to have your local churches ring their church bells, LET FREEDOM RING!

I will honk my car horn, listen for the bells, and remember all who remain on that battlefield, friend and foe.