With the Memorial Day holiday, Americans set aside a special time each year to honor the more than 1 million soldiers who have died serving in combat since the Revolutionary War.
And in this time of ongoing war, we have a special duty to remember the 4,400 soldiers who have died in Iraq since 2003 and the more than 1,000 who have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
Both wars threaten to become "forgotten wars," as was the three-year Korean War in the 1950s.
Military.com, a veterans organization, describes that still largely "Unknown War" of 60 years ago: "The war featured some of the most intense fighting ever experienced by American soldiers – and some of the worst conditions. Nearly 37,000 American servicemen lost their lives in three years, the majority of losses concentrated in the first year. This is a significantly higher figure per year than the 58,000 American casualties spread over 10 years in Vietnam"
That 1950-1953 war also left the United States with permanent commitments in Asia, seen still today as tensions mount over a South Korean ship sunk by a North Korean torpedo in March. On this Memorial Day, it is worth remembering that we still have 28,500 troops in South Korea.
And while we are poised to end our combat role in Iraq by the end of August, let us not forget that 92,000 troops are in Iraq today and 50,000 troops will stay until the end of 2011 to help train Iraqi forces.
The Afghanistan war, now lasting more than nine years, close to rivaling America's longest war (the 1964-1975 Vietnam War), unfortunately has fallen largely out of sight, out of mind. Yet the U.S. commitment in that country continues to escalate. The U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan has gone from 5,000 in the year after October 2001 to 37,000 when President Barack Obama took office in 2009. Today, we have 94,000 troops in that country. U.S. troops are expected to reach 98,000 by December.
Last year was the worst year for American deaths in Afghanistan, and this year also is expected to be tough and bloody. U.S. troop deaths nearly doubled in the first three months of 2010 compared to the same period last year. On this Memorial Day, let us remember that from Kabul to Kandahar to Helmand in Afghanistan, we have soldiers in harm's way in their role to protect our security here at home. Many of those brave men and women hail from California.
The aim of this holiday, a national commemoration held since 1868, is to ensure that Americans never forget their war dead – those who, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, "gave their lives that that nation might live."