KIA Iraq

KIA Iraq is a hard subject to talk about. Already thousands of American lives have been taken in their prime. Many thousands more bear the scars of service, both physical and mental. Others are scarred but are able to hide it, at least for now.

And there seems to me no end of the violence in sight. As the holidays approach, many places at holiday tables will be empty, some just a temporary thing as their loved ones are overseas in harm's way.

But some places, will be empty forever because a loved one’s life has been taken to provide security for our country and Iraq.

Our KIA Iraq have paid the price for our freedom because our freedom is at stake. They have died for our security and safety. They are what have been at stake since 9/11.

The presence of our fighting forces in the Middle East have kept us secure for the past six years. Not only have they kept us secure, but they have kept many others in other countries secure.

Due to the extreme, misplaced hate for President Bush, many cannot see this. They are blinded by their anger.Our dead soldiers in Iraq have given many the chance for a better life.

A chance for education. A chance for freedom that they have never experienced. A chance to go to school. Many Iraqi civilians have a life today that they could never even have imagined under Saddam.

Sure, many Iraqi civilians have been and are being killed, but no more than when Saddam was ruler. Only now we have more information about these deaths occurring. Under Saddam, people just disappeared. Even now, almost weekly, graves where mass murders by Saddam took place, are being discovered.

One of the dead soldiers in Iraq was Captain Humayun S. M. Khan. I remember his death because I was at Camp Warhorse, driving a forklift, when the explosion that took his life took place.

I remember the frantic calls over our radio system. The military could not get hold of their people at the front gate so they called our people. Our people did not answer either. For a bit, confusion ruled while the military and KBR worked together to get a handle on the situation. Our people were not killed, but injured. Most could not hear anything for several days.

We were sad to learn that Captain Khan had been killed, but even sadder to find out eighteen Iraqis were killed, to include several who worked for us. From the damage done to the front gate, the United States was very lucky that more were not killed. The car itself was in pieces.

Recently two soldiers who went missing in May of last year were found, or their bodies were found. After searching for 13 months, their remains were found, not far from the post where they were captured.

We do not know how they died. We do not know if they were tortured or killed outright, or even survived for several months before being killed. What we do know is they were killed for keeping their country safe.

You can read more about their story at Missing Hiker.

For more details about those who have are KIA Iraq, visit USA today.

For a picture and brief history of all those who have been KIA Iraq, visit this website Washington Post.

Last Letters Home is about families who received letters from their loved ones, AFTER being notified that their loved one had been KIA Iraq. I found the movie very stirring. I cried through most of. We have lost so many of our youth in their prime.

However, we will never know the number of lives they have saved because of their sacrifice.

Another site to visit is a site maintained by a friend of mine, Carson George. His site is Designed Photos. He has a lot of photos of the Iraq war.

Carson knows what it is like to serve his country. He did a tour in Vietnam. He was at Camp Warhorse in August of 2007, working for KBR, supporting and doing a lot of things for the troops like building a theater and MWR recreation room, when he learned that his son, LCpl. Phillip C. George had been killed in Afghanistan.

As seconds have dragged into minutes, and minutes have dragged into hours, and hours have dragged into days, and days have dragged into months which have turned into years now, it is important that we remember the dead soldiers in Iraq volunteered to serve their country and went where they were told.

They did this without regret, without remorse but with courage because their hearts were full of compassion for a country whose people suffered at the hands of a merciless dictator.

In the words of my friend Carson George: “In Honor we stand, In Prayer we Remember”

As Memorial Day approaches our thoughts turn to those who have been KIA especially those from Iraq.

Go to Home Page from KIA Iraq.