Would I Be Willing

Now that the fighting by Coalition Forces, led by the United States Military, is formally drawing to an end in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is difficult for me to see what has been accomplished. I can recall that there was always restraint on the part of government leadership to grant to the military the resources that their leadership felt was necessary to accomplish the mission.  Then each request for specific troop numbers became routinely ignored.  The American people grew weary of the expense of war, and the amount of time and resources needed to finish the job, and most politicians listened to the cries that our money should be spent on problems at home.  It has remained my own opinion that terrorism could make, on any day of the week, our problems at home a moot point.  Those people of the world who have among their stated objectives, the overthrow of the United States government, and the installation of an Islamic state in place of our government, are according to reports I read, more capable of executing that goal than they were when we started this endeavor.  They are also more resolved.  I am almost certain that the world state of affairs is such that the call will soon go out once again.  Many more will hesitate to answer that call this time...

 Would I Be Willing

Would I be willing a second time to do it all over again,

Knowing what I know now, but I did not back then?

Would I be willing to place my hand over my heart in front of the bandstand,

Knowing what I do now of things commanders without honor can so carelessly demand?

Would I be willing to hear the questions of our children, and to look into their eyes?

Knowing what I do now, how would I answer the pleas and their cries?

Would I be willing to spend nights alone thinking of the threat the enemy would wield, 

Knowing what I do now of how many would take their own lives after the battlefield?

Would I be willing to see him brought off the plane on a gurney,

Knowing what I do now, would I still be willing to take this journey?

Would I be willing to hold back tears and kiss him goodbye with a smile,

Knowing what I do now of the horrors of PTSD mile after mile?

Would I be willing to roll him again and again down the V.A. corridors,

Knowing what I do now about all it means to be a Wounded Warrior?

Would I be willing to hear the bugler play Taps, and to accept the folded flag in my hand?

Knowing what I do now of how this endeavor was lacking in a wise and committed plan?

Would I be willing a second time to do it all over again,
Knowing what I know now, but I did not back then?

 Dedicated to those who serve and have served, but most of all,
 to those who have loved and supported them, and all the tears that
  have been shed, some from broken and disillusioned heart .  May
The Great Physician's love, mercy, and grace meet them at their point of 
need, and if God can use me to minister to their needs, may I ever be 
alert to stand in the gap for them, as they have done for me.