Please take a long time for everyone that has and will give their lives there. Please do not forget that this is the land of Babylon. Iraq is a boneyard 5,000 years old. Pray that the peoples there can overcome hatreds that are hundreds or even thousands of years old so that the young man from your place did not die for nothing. The first part of the mission is almost done. It was the easy part. The hard part is about to begin. That has always been a very troubled land, let us hope that a difference can be made to bring these people into the new age so that we do not have to fall back into their's.
Pardon my sentimentalism, I just get sad about this sometimes.