BANG! BANG! DID YOU HEAR THE ONE,,,

We are at war and have been at war for 8 years, but you'd never know it. Except for an occasional report on radio and tv that one or two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq or Afghanistan, you would never know it. Unless of course you have a son or daughter, brother or sister or husband or wife on the firing line, then you know it, those shots being fired over there are loud and clear. Deafiningly so.

Our President and Vice-President don't seem to know it, running around the country, smiling, bantering with reporters as if the war is over and we won...and running around the world shaking hands with and bowing to supporters of terrorism as if they were not the ones we are fighting.

I don't know precisely why our leaders, and the country in general, are acting as if everything is fine.

Is it because there are so many other problems in the country, with the economy and all, that we have no room left for more things to worry about?

Is it because, hey, this is not World War II when we had millions fighting, "there are only 150,000 or so being shot at"?

Is it because "this is Bush's war, it's not our war, and we shouldn't really be there"?

Is it because we've gotten so cold and callous that we've gotten used to killing and dying?

Is it because they don't allow the showing of filled coffins coming back to the States?

Is it because we are fighting this war as a war of containment rather than going all out to win it...and that we know this war will not end soon, but that it is likely to continue for years and years, decades?

Do I think we and our leaders have to mope around looking sad and forlorn. We didn't do that in WWII either. But withinin our demeanor there must be some element of recognition that we are facing threats, that some of us are directly in harm's way and though we don't know them, they are risking their lives to save ours.

Is that not real? Is that too much to expect?

Let us begin each political press conference and town hall meeting with a few moments of silence, prayer if you wish, to acknowledge the realities of the war we are fighting, to pay our respects to those on the front lines who are fighting it, and to reflect our determination to end it soon and victoriously.

General Douglas MacArthur is quoted as saying, "It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win." I will paraphrase that by saying "It is fatal to continue fighting any war without acknowledging you are fighting it."