Ah, breathe it in!  It’s that nostalgic time of year:

Fire works.

Cookouts

Red, White & Blue.

The summer upon is and headlined by the 4^th of July holiday…and while we bake under the heat that settles over this city, it also envelopes us with a feeling of patriotism few other spots in this country provide in such a pervasive matter. It can actually fill your being.

It puts a smile on my face to see the old Stars & Stripes hanging outside my front door, and I think (although never deeply or deservingly enough) about what it really stands for.

This year though, it’s time to take a closer look.

Our thoughts, and understandably so, often carry 8 thousand miles across the ocean and focus on those men and women fighting in Iraq. I won’t get political on the issue. Now’s not the time or place. At any given time there can be upward of 130,000 U.S. troops or more in harms way, not to mention the 108 degree heat. They, UNDOUBTEDLY, have earned all of our respect and prayers. I’ve been there, seen what they go through, and my appreciation knows no bounds.

There is though, another effort that so often goes overlooked: Afghanistan. Operation Enduring Freedom. That’s the name of our effort there if you haven’t heard. And many probably haven’t. It’s become for many of us, the forgotten war, an afterthought. The follow up to lines like “…yeah, we should support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Always, it barely seems to make it into the conversation: a muttering at the end of sentence.

Sadly though, it has moved into first place recently in a very sobering statistical category: deaths.

For the past two months, there have been more U.S. and NATO troop deaths in THAT war torn country, than in Iraq.

46 in June compared to 31 in Iraq. The highest number of deaths since the war began in 2001. In May, 23 international troops were killed there, 21 in Iraq.

Even more sobering when you consider that we have considerably fewer service personnel there than in Iraq

I’m not placing a title of higher significance on the fighting there…or in Iraq. It’s simply not possible. A death to a family’s loved one; son, daughter, father, mother, sister or brother feels just as awful…no matter in which country it happened.

I’m only pointing out, that when you look at ‘old glory’ this year, when you watch the fireworks, eat that hamburger or share a drink with friends…you should take time to remember all of our troops.

In Afghanistan AND Iraq.

In Iraq AND Afghanistan.

The order doesn’t matter, just the honor.