Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. The republic stands strong. God bless the heroes that keep us free.
Understood.
I also understand that it is precisely because of the sacrifice of such excellent men as this that we *must* ensure that complete victory is the only outcome of this.
The cost has been high, and it will go higher. But it must mean something. It must be about a new shift in the whole of the middle east, and a seed change in the threat that the region has posed to the rest of the world for so long now.
I don't know if I could express it to a grieving parent in words that could possibly make sense, but from the point of view of a nation, if we can finally fix this wholly broken part of the world it will mean as much for the future history of this new century as did the sacrifices of WWII for the last century.