Four years later, treat heroes well

Monday marked the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. The early triumphant boasts of shock and awe have evolved into political infighting and demands for withdrawal.

The four-year death toll includes more than 3,200 Americans and an estimated 60,000 Iraqis. Some view those statistics as lamentable but acceptable. This is a war on terror everywhere, supporters of the war say, and the cost in human life, finances and other resources is justified.

The other view: We have lost too many lives, spent too much money and made too little progress over the past four years. This camp supports legislation now in Congress to cut spending and, in essence, force the withdrawal of U.S. troops sometime in 2008.

We confess to having strong but mixed feelings. In retrospect, we believe the U.S. entered this war without the necessary understanding of what it was getting into. Certainly, Saddam Hussein needed to be brought to justice. And the world had to know that the U.S. would not stand by idly when acts of terrorism were committed against us. Yet despite the many areas of progress we see — new schools being built, jobs created, infrastructure improving and an insatiable thirst for freedom growing — Iraq is entrenched in a civil war that has been waged for thousands of years and has every indication of raging for generations to come.

And then there is this: We can think of no greater morale booster to the enemy than to declare the war is lost, our human and financial investment wasted, and our resources stretched so thin that we're more vulnerable in many areas than we were before this war.

Perhaps most of all, we are adamant that the mixed messages and powerful feelings on both sides of this debate never, ever diminish the will of those serving America in the Middle East. That's why we mark the fourth anniversary of the war with a simple but sincere request: Support our men and women in harm's way.

You can do it by words as letters to the editor, e-mails to Congress, or, our preference, as messages to the soldiers themselves. That's what Girl Scouts from Troop 411 and students from a host of area schools did, and for good measure, they augmented the notes of support with Girl Scout cookies.

Five hundred and 10 boxes of 'em.

Working with VFW Post 889 and Auxiliary, the girls spent much of last weekend preparing the massive care packages for soldiers and sailors with local ties. It was a spectacular effort that is every bit as certain to make the soldiers and sailors happy is it was to make all of us here at home proud of these kids.

We commend everything residents are doing and encourage everyone to contact the local VFW to see what can be done to support our troops.