Oliver North was one of the embedded journalists in the Iraqi war. He told the following story: This is the eighth war I've been to, the best part of it was the morning after the palace battle and leaving the capital with the 5th Marines, we're driving north toward Tikrit, [Hussein's] home town, and it's not even dawn. There are tens of thousands of people on the street cheering the United States, President Bush, and the U.S. Marines. And a vehicle stops I'm with the battalion commander, the sergeant major, crusty veteran of two wars and a lot of gunfights in between sitting next to me, a little girl comes up to the window. Here's a guy with a 50-caliber machine gun standing up between us, driver, corporal, battalion commander, sergeant major and me. The little girl hands him an American flag that she had drawn by hand and says in perfect English, we love you.

I look over at the sergeant major, and I'm choked up, and he's got tears coming down his face. So I, in typical North fashion, I say, sergeant major, what's the matter? He says, "Oh, a little dust in the eyes." A few miles later on he stops and he's holding it in his hand and he looks at me and says this is proof that what we did was the right thing.

Life is complicated. How can you deny the experience of those soldiers? But what happened in Iraq in the subsequent years was wrong. The country fell apart due to lack of leadership, outside forces, will of the people. It was wrong; it was right. The answer? I don't have it, but I know that this is right where God meets us. In the muck and mire. In the gains and loses. At the crossroads, there is a cross, where God does not abandon us but meets us in Christ.