On the eve of our nation’s 233rd birthday comes grim reminders — the deaths of four North Carolina soldiers in Baghdad and the killing of one Marine and the capturing of another in Afghanistan.

Advertisement

We are a nation at war on two fronts.

The North Carolina National Guardsmen died when an improvised explosive device went off near their vehicle. It was the “last day of combat operations” in Iraq’s big cities. Their deaths bring the number of North Carolina guardsmen killed in the Iraqi war to 15.

The unidentified Marine died as U.S. forces expanded their campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Regardless of how you feel about the reasons and rationale we went to war, there is one inescapable fact — We are there.

And while the politicians and diplomats seek a path of disengagement, especially in Iraq, our men and women are in harm’s way. Many of America’s best and brightest will risk all for the nation’s cause.

These men and women — those still in uniform and those who served faithfully, our veterans — deserve our wholehearted support.

We must not waiver in providing the equipment for war, the support for life once they have left the battlefield and the needs for life when they come home.

As we honor the memory of the newly fallen and raise the flag in the celebration of liberty 233 years after the Declaration of Independence, we must renew our promise to keep faith with our heroes.

It is a responsibility Congress and the White House seem to forget or choose to ignore from time to time. They must not, ever.

We have chosen a path of nation-building in Iran and Afghanistan. We must complete the task for the sake of the people of those two nations and for our own national integrity. Today, we stand and salute the memory of the fallen and renew our pledge of support for the future.