Nearly 4300 U.S. service men and women dead and almost a trillion dollars spent.

Those are the numbers from the war in Iraq as the president says combat operations are over.

I won't say whether I think we should have ever gone into Iraq in the first place.  I do have an opinion on it, but will keep it to myself.

I will say the members of the military and their families are heroes.  I don't care if they're on the front line or sitting at a desk in a base and never see battle.  They're all heroes for dedicating their lives to our country.

The bottom line is, Dear God I hope it worked.  I hope the country doesn't plummet back into chaos or dictatorship.  I hope what our people did there is the seed for some marvelous democracy that other parts of the region see and say "gee, that looks like the way to live!" turning their own homelands into places where all shall be free and equal.

Because if it doesn't work, the cost has been way too high.

J