Baghdad ? As the American war in Iraq comes to an end, some troops find themselves grappling with a question that has dogged them through multiple deployments: Was the sacrifice worth the price that US forces paid here?
?I?ve had people come to me, ?Why were we there? What did we do? Why did 4,000 die in Iraq? Why did I lose my friend?? ? says Lt. Col. Mark Rowan, an Air Force chaplain who has served 12 deployments and who has counseled troops returning from Iraq. ?We don?t really know the answer to that yet.?
Commanders say it?s a question that they can?t readily answer, either. ?My opinion about sacrifice is that it?s a very personal thing,? says Maj. Gen. Russell Handy, the senior US Air Force officer in Iraq. To pronounce whether the war was ?worth it,? he says, would mean ?putting words in the mouths of family members? who continue to mourn for loved ones.
IN PICTURES: Leaving Iraq
Beyond those directly connected with the war, few Americans will ever understand the scale of loss for the US military, many here also believe.
It?s ?almost impossible for the American people to comprehend the level of sacrifice? that US troops have made in this war, says Handy.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, flying into Baghdad for the official ?close of mission? ceremony Thursday, addressed the troops, as well as the question that many silently ask themselves.
?To be sure, the cost was high,? he said. But ?those lives were not lost in vain: They gave birth to an independent, free, and sovereign Iraq.?
US forces who have been working with their Iraqi counterparts up until their last hours here wrestle with whether America did indeed accomplish what it set out to do.
They wonder, too, whether the answer to the war's worthiness hinges on another question ??? the question of, say, whether America won the war.
?We came to give them a democracy,? says Staff Sgt. Donald Rice of the 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. ?We gave them a chance at democracy. Was 4,400 lives worth the cost of giving them the chance at democracy?? he wonders.
?I?m not going to judge personal sacrifice,? says Handy, ?but I can tell you it?s tremendously important for this country to be stable.? Iraq today has a ?democratically elected and inclusive government,? he adds, and there remains hope for ?what that might mean to the region,? as the Arab Spring enters the winter season.
Rowan, the chaplain, says he has fielded agonized questions from troops, particularly among those who have experienced the heartbreak of losing their comrades.
He recalls presiding at the moment of death of a soldier, a married father of three who was shot while out on a 2009 patrol in northern Iraq.
?I stayed with him and held his hand,? Rowan says, ?and did all the last rites before he passed.?
When his fellow soldiers learned that he had died, ?they exploded and threw their helmets down.?
They wondered, too, whether the war was worth this ??? the loss they witnessed again and again.
Rowan says that sometimes it helps to turn the question around: ?I ask them, 'What do you think you accomplished there? For the Air Force, or outside the base, maybe you were part of a team that got terrorists out of a town. Were people able to live free again?' ?
The point, he says, is to focus on, ?What good did you do there.? For America, for the politicians, he tells them, ?History will decide the rest.?
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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111216/ts_csm/437790
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Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
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Our special ceremony was held at one of the most gorgeous sites in Seattle, the Corson Building. Millen and Lily designed the majority of their furnishings by themselves. Millen drew the invitations to complement the Corson Building as well as their chicken coops near the house which they lived in.
?We found seed bombs as wedding favors, personalized for each region of the country the friends came from, along with a taco bar at the end of the wedding ceremony.?The bride told us.
?I performed from the point both of my husband and I were sure about-it was the wedding area, and for this reason, I came up with personal city gardens with the aim that the wedding would feel exclusive and interesting.?
?We celebrated the day by the way of a very fresh chicken coop idea, as the Corson Building had it and I showed fetish for the mean as well.? Lily added, ?Vera Wang style mixed up with chicken coop! And the colors of the wedding were peachy. That was fantastic!?
?We originated a great number of DIY elements in respect of save-the-date card and wedding invitations, colored coffee filter wreaths, painted heart wreaths, ombre colored handkerchiefs, welcome flags, innovative thrilling wedding favors, as well as our cake festoons and its topper.?
During this amazing wedding, Lily still has some tips for girls who are going to have their wedding ceremonies in the near future: Absolutely get your inspiration as much as you can by all the magnificent concepts from blogs or magazines, but do not miss your own style and always make a truthful statement of who you and your prince charming are. Give an honest statement of your tastes and interests. As this coming day does not only mean your day, it is the day which would also make it meaningful for all the present.