Some of the fallen heroes were young sons and daughters, some were mothers and fathers, some were aunts and uncles, almost all had friends and relatives, they were from a wide area....from the inner city streets to the most rural villages. They were teens who went from senior proms almost directly to boot camp and basic training, perhaps on to some more advanced training, then on into battle protecting freedom throughout the world. Some were middle-aged family people who had perhaps retired and had grandchildren, they too went into a battle to protect freedom. Many were young parents who also went into battle to protect freedom....they all paid the ultimate price. Not only them, their friends and relatives paid the price too, and will pay that price for many years to come.

How great is the number compared to other wars?.......On D-Day alone, more Americans lost their lives. At the peak of Vietnam, hundreds of U.S. troops were dying every week. And in just one September morning three years ago, 2,792 innocent people perished when two towers crumbled to the streets of New York.......how great are the numbers?.....just one life lost is too many, but so was the loss of innocent life in NYC and tens of thousands of others around the world lost due to terrorist activities and the activities of tyrants....these brave men and women are now lost because they were brave enough to take a stand, not in the rally and protest marches that now prevail....a REAL stand....and we DO have the right to have those protests, the fallen heroes, the wounded, those who have returned to their families and friends and those who continue to fight GAVE US that right, not the media, nor the organizers, the right is given by the Constitution, so bravely defended by the men and women in uniform. Perhaps the protesters might like to consider having the rallies and protests against the terrorists who, by their actions, mean that many more military and maybe civilian lives will be lost......that way the protesters would not only be supporting peace, as so many of us do, but would also be supporting the thousands of military men and women, and others in uniform, who are so deserving of their support, if nothing else, for defending their right to participate in the rallies and protests.........what is even more important is that they would be sending a clear message to the terrorist organizations......one which says "WE are ALL in support of freedom, we are ALL anti-terrorist.....we just show it in a different way"............rather than the diversive impression and signals that the current rallies and protests portray.....unfortunately political activists are involved, and the price of politics is more important than the price of freedom and the protection of true peace for all..........it doesn't matter WHO is President Mr. Activist!!....it could be Mickey Mouse!!....what really matters is that the terrorists and tyrants are stopped before they impose even greater tolls on innocent life.......either here in the United States, or anywhere else in the world.....

The youngest to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom was just 18. The oldest was 59. More than half had not seen their 30th birthdays, according to an Associated Press analysis of Defense Department statistics for those who died since the war started on March 19, 2003........About 7,000 other Americans have been wounded.

Of those who have died, 97 percent were men; two dozen were women. While more than 600 were white, others were black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian — including the first Indian woman killed in combat while fighting for the U.S. military and a Cheyenne River Sioux who traced his ancestry to two great chiefs, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull........and from every state but Alaska......they represented U.S. territories: American Samoa, the Northern Marianas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico......more than three dozen were born in foreign countries — including Thailand, India, Albania, Poland, Nicaragua, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates — but ended up fighting for a nation they embraced as their own......while many had been naturalized, at least 10 died reaching for their vision of the American dream: to become U.S. citizens.

The Iraq war also has claimed the lives of more than 120 foreign troops who are part of the U.S.-led coalition; about half were in the British military. Nearly 100 Americans have died in operations in Afghanistan, along with 35 others in related action in Pakistan and other countries.