by Jennifer Green

Created on: February 23, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

Just to get home, I have to produce an ID card, and I am subject to a random vehicle search each time. I have to resign myself to the fact that protestors on the side of the road in my town have the right to Freedom of Speech. I have to listen to news reporters condemn my husband and his leader for doing their job I am a military wife.

It's extremely difficult to discuss politics and the world around us because to me, it's not only a fact, it's an emotional one. My husband spent fourteen months in Iraq fighting for the freedom of our country while his own people were at home with their families exercising their right to rally against he and his brothers and sisters in arms.

I wouldn't ever ask anyone to put aside their political opinion, but I would ask a person who is against our president, against our troops, against our position in Iraq to stop and remember why they are permitted to voice these opinions. In most other countries, there would be extreme punishment for speaking out against their leader. We have our civil liberties because of the fights of our forefathers. Like it or not, protestors are able to protest because of war.

The American people need to band together in this difficult time for so many families and so many homes in our great country. If you don't support the war, at least support our troops who are only doing what they have a duty to do. If our troops come home with a job left unfinished, over 3000 others have died in vain. War is never easy; it's never painless but it is sometimes necessary.

The terrorists who attacked our country are watching it deteriorate. The saddest thing is that it's deteriorating because of them but Americans have begun to blame each other. Too easily we have forgotten how we felt on September 11th. The troops still fighting thousands of miles away need our support for their own sense of morale.

This being said, I'm just the wife of a United States Army soldier. I'm not an activist; I'm not a political figure. I do, however, know how it feels to say goodbye to my husband and pray everyday for his wellbeing and his safe return. I know how it feels to be angry, to be sad, and to be ecstatic just to hear his voice for a few minutes every couple of weeks. I know how it feels to sleep alone and cry myself to sleep and beg God for His mercy and grace. I don't know how it feels to lose my partner, parent or child to war but I have faced that possibility.

My prayer now is that we can somehow come together and see this out for the sake of our troops at war, those who have returned and are dealing with the aftermath, and the families who are coping with their own solider's absence or the loss of their loved ones.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Green.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.