Our Fallen Brothers & Sisters

At the Five Year Anniversary of the U.S. invasion & occupation of Iraq, I think every American should spend time reading the Obituaries of the soldiers who have lost their lives. I'm afraid it's too easy to simply go about our daily lives & forget what is happening to our soldiers, friends, neighbors & families.

The Salt Lake Tribune put together a great article this week entitled Remembering Utah's Fallen that features a picture, brief quote & bio about every one of the Utah soldiers who lost their lives.

The Tribune article cites that 46 Utahns have died in the various U.S. conflicts since Sept. 11, 2001. Please take a minute to read the article, Remembering Utah's Fallen and the bios of each person. There are several photos of lonely children included with the bios, which is heart-breaking.

I've had a few friends do military tours in the Middle East, and thankfully return safely. A couple who are close to my in-laws had their son die - Blake Stephens was the first soldier to die from Pocatello, Idaho.

But the total casualty count is much higher. U.S. casualties, or those wounded or dead, are nearly 30,000 (29,314 as of March 25, 2008), according to icasualties.org . And a recent Reuters story cited a scary & very sad figure:

Precise Iraqi casualties in the conflict are not known but the widely cited human rights group Iraq Body Count said earlier this month that up to around 89,300 civilians have been killed since 2003.

I won't get political here - but we all need to seriously think about how the decisions of our elected leaders can affect us all.