I have waited a couple of weeks to write this post. Mainly because I wanted the time to really think about what I wanted to say.
My husband is at his weekend drill today. A year ago he was in Iraq. And five years ago, March 19, the day President Bush announced our country was at war, I was in an airplane headed to the Middle East to board an aircraft carrier positioned somewhere in the East Mediterranean. It was my birthday and I was 26. Two days later, our little boy turned two, the same day I landed on the USS Harry S Truman, ready to report on stories of how Christians on board that ship were handling being at war.
No one had any idea at the time that the war we watched begin that week with fighter jets taking off from the flight deck in the beginnings of the “Shock and Awe” campaign everyone else was watching back home on television – no one could have predicted that we would still be there today.
I remember when we went to Baghdad, Jim (my photographer) and I, to cover stories on the ground in November of that year. In addition to all of the soldiers and chaplains we talked to, we also got to meet an Iraqi pastor named Maher. We visited with his family in his home and got to see his church and meet some of his church members. So many women came up to me after the service and told me to thank the Americans back home for sending our troops and freeing them from Saddam. They showed me pictures of their children, and I showed them pictures of my son. The world got a lot smaller for me that day.
I remember Jim and I talking on the way home about coming back to Iraq five years later, maybe to see what had happened with Maher and his church, wondering how different it might be. Sadly, we will never get that chance. Maher and his family were coming home from a church conference in Jordan in 2005 when their vehicle was attacked and all inside were presumed dead.
Returning to Iraq hasn’t happened for me. I stayed home while my husband took his turn as a Navy reservist. I was grateful that I’d been and could have a sense of what he was experiencing. And the war became more than a story for me – it became part of our lives. It put me on a course to do something to encourage military wives and to instill hope and make a difference for military families.
Since the war started, we’ve all watched our country become divided on why and how and who. It’s been very frustrating to have talked to Iraqis and see the difference that our military made by outsting Saddam Hussein from power and then see Americans here say we should never have gone.
I know that military families are tired. That military wives are worn out and sick of saying goodbye to their husbands. I see the posts on our Wives of Faith MySpace page of women who miss their husbands and my heart aches with them.
Just this morning, my husband called and let me know the year he will be leaving again. I don’t like the idea of seeing him gone again but I also believe that it’s worth it. Our freedom and the future of our country is worth the sacrifice.
I don’t believe it’s coincidence that we have not seen another attack on our soil like 9/11. We have certainly defended our country while keeping the fight on the opponent’s turf. And the majority of those fighting against us in Iraq are not Iraqis – they’re foreign fighters, many from Iran and other Muslim countries that wish to see the “infidels” destroyed. It is not a question of leave their land and they’ll leave us alone. They won’t leave us alone until we are gone.
When I interviewed Maher, he told me he saw the war in Iraq as very much a spiritual war. People don’t like to hear that. We don’t like to mix faith with military actions. And I would never say that our military is there to “christianize” the Middle East. Absolutely not. We’re there to free the Middle East from dictators and tyrants and establish democracy. One of the benefits of a democracy though is the freedom to believe and to believe without fear of repercussions. That is what Christians in the Middle East want. And I would say that is what many Muslims want – those who do not follow the extreme beliefs that we see with the insurgents. Maher told me that he lived on a street with Muslims and other families of different faiths and they all lived and respected one another and their beliefs.
People will debate this war for decades to come. But debate is not what’s needed today. I think it’s prayer. Prayer that God will bring Iraq to closure in His time and that our leaders will make the right decisions in the meantime.
When I was in Baghdad, I got to talk to a lot of military chaplains. And one in particular, Chaplain Jim Murphy, told me that they could tell when the folks back home were praying for them, and when they weren’t. Prayer is powerful and it matters. And it does make a difference.
I think sometimes we think something is too big for God. But nothing is too big. So as we move into our sixth year in Iraq, and our seventh year in the Global War on Terror, take your frustrations and your fears and your concerns to God and pray. Pray for our troops, pray for our military families. Pray for the upcoming presidential election and pray for our country. Pray that God will lead. And pray that we will follow.
I’m leaving comments off of this post. These were my thoughts and my feelings and not intended for debate. You can always email me through my website if you’d like.
If you are a military wife or a servicemember, thank you for what you do and the sacrifices you make on a daily basis. If you are not, thank you for praying for military families.
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