"Reflections from a Marine Mom"

Afghanistan now has the distinction of being America's longest war, having lasted over 12 years. Has our military's sacrifice been worth it? Between Iraq and Afghanistan, members of my family serving in the Air Force and Marine Corps have made 12 deployments. Was their service worth it? It will probably be decades before that question has been fully evaluated or answered, but it seems that the majority of Americans are war weary, and most think nothing has changed in either country.

In June, I was in South Korea for a Christian conference. June 6 is the South Korean Day of Remembrance, the day on which Koreans commemorate those who died in the Korean War. They have not forgotten the North Korean invasion in 1950, and the terrible suffering their country experienced as a result.  As I stared out across the DMZ into the no man's land that now separates the two countries, I considered the similarities between that war and the current conflict.

After Word War II, America was weary of the huge sacrifice of life and resources. Accordingly, when communist North Korea invaded the south, few Americans were keen to get our troops involved. Last summer I recently did a video interview with a dear friend who had served as a Marine during the Korean War. I was overwhelmed by his description of the suffering our troops experienced in Korea. He told me that the winter was so severe that he lost more men to cold than to bullets. President Truman described the war as a "police Action," since it was prosecuted through the newly formed UN, and today the conflict is often referred to as "The Forgotten War," or "The Unknown War" because of its limited scale.   Nonetheless, preserving freedom and democracy for the people of South Korea has had far reaching consequences.

Today, South Korea is an amazing country, boasting the 12th largest economy in the world, as well as one of the largest Christian populations in Asia. If you asked most South Koreans, they would say that the sacrifices UN forces made on their behalf was worth it to save the nation they enjoy today. I pray that God in his sovereignty will similarly bless the people of Afghanistan, especially the children who are their future, and that history will record that their suffering and the sacrifice of our military was worth it.