September 11, 2001 will forever be remembered. It will not be remembered just by Americans, but by the whole world. That day was a day of tragedy in which people from various nations lost loved ones.
As the ten year anniversary of that horrible act of terrorism approaches, we are forced to look back and reflect at the last decade and the long term effects. When we sit and look back, it is amazing how a few people flying some commercial airliners could change the fate of The United States forever. While the attacks on the World Trade Center did weaken us for a brief moment in time, it strengthened us as the same time.Everywhere you look now you find yellow ribbon magnets and flags waving. There have been numerous country songs written about that day, and American Pride has started to flourish again. Unfortunately the good outcomes do not come close to comparing to the negatives.
Even as a member of the United States Army, I cannot tell you why anyone would want to attack us like that. What started as a simple suicide mission for a terrorist cell group has ten years later turned into much more. There are U. S.
Military Forces moving in and out of the Middle East on a constant basis.The United States has ten years later brought Iraq into a state of democracy and moved a large majority of the insurgents out of the country and into Afghanistan. As a result we are able to withdraw all of our combat brigades out of Iraq and focus on other bordering countries and turn the security of the country over to its own people. We still have troops in Iraq, however they are there to train the Iraqi security forces and provide logistical support.
Everyone stops to say thank you to a soldier walking through the airport in uniform these days. However, does anyone stop to say thank you to the family that was just left behind.That soldier’s family pays an ultimate sacrifice that I cannot even begin to help you understand. I watched a few months ago as a soldier got up one morning to get on a plane to head out for his second trip to Iraq.
That morning was like any other for the soldier. He woke up and put on his uniform as he had done for years. When he got ready to walk out of the house, he stopped to hug his little girls. A soldier is supposed to be strong and be able to endure anything, but when a man is leaving his family behind to go fight in a war, two little girls can break a grown man and make him cry.I watched in silence as these two little innocent children hugged their daddy’s neck and begged him not to go.
I watched in silence as the soldier began to explain to his daughters why he must go. He told them that they should be proud of their daddy and not sad. Then I watched the same soldier tell his wife goodbye later that say as he got on a bus that would take him to his airplane and fly him across the ocean. This war does not affect just the men and women who wear the uniform.
It affects all of us. The family members do not get a uniform to wear to signify who they are.You will probably never know who they are unless they tell you. There is one thing I can tell you though, this war affects the families left behind just as much as the soldier if not more so. We often relate 9/11 to the destruction of The World Trade Center but it was so much more than that.
That day was a day that would change the fate of Americans forever. The next time we stop to pray for the soldiers overseas defending our freedoms and for the soldiers who have lost their lives, remember to also pray for the families who are living without their soldier.
