It is always sad when nations go to war. In recent years the sadness has been magnified because just a little more than a decade ago, we seemed so close to a lasting peace. 

The wall had gone down in Berlin. Eastern Europe had opened up. The cold war with Russia had thawed… and at that time in the early 1990s, we thought, “Finally! At long last, we can have a peaceful world. But then suddenly on August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait launching a crescendo of tension-packed events that led to the Persian Gulf War. Then, ten years later, we experienced the horror and tragedy and heart-wrenching pain of September 11, 2001… which led to the War on Terror… prompting military action in Afghanistan… and now in Iraq. And over the last few dramatic days, unforgettable images have captured our minds a…