by James Glaser
January 25, 2006

Each morning when you get up, think about the fact that 18 American troops will be killed or wounded in Iraq by the end of the day. That is the average every day since the war started on March 19, 2003. That works out to 126 a week, 540 a month, or if you want to be as up to date as possible, 2,231 American troops have died as of today, and 16,420 have been wounded as of January 6th. For some reason the Pentagon updates us on the wounded only on the first and last week of the month.

Now the American men and women who are killed, and those who have most of their brains blown out, don't need our prayers. That is harsh, but it is the truth. Now in writing this column I am assuming that you are Christian, as 85% of Americans claim to be, and as such you know if you don't receive Christ as your savior before you die, you are headed to hell. Also if your brains have been blown away before you have had a chance to be saved, you are no longer able to make the decision to accept Christ. That said, it is the rest of our troops that our prayers may be able to help.

Here is something every American Christian should think about. Are our troops ready to die before they go into battle? I not talking about if they are willing to put their lives on the line, because that is what each and every American serviceman or woman is doing when they sign on the dotted line and are sent off to war. No, I am asking if we have prepared our American troops for what happens to them if they are killed or if they are wounded so badly that they can not make a real decision. Once a trooper is dead, there isn't that second chance they would have had if they hadn't gone off to war. Either their soul is saved, or it isn't

So, the troops we can do something about, the ones we have left to pray for, are those who were wounded or those lucky enough to make it back without a wound, at least a physical wound. Anyone who spends any amount of time in combat walks away with a wound in their mind that sticks with them. They might not bleed, but they do hurt.

The reason we are praying for these troops is that it is pretty easy for a Soldier or Marine who has been to war to think that their sins in that war are too much to be forgiven for. No matter what George Bush says, he can not save your soul if what you did in war time goes against what Christ told us. George Bush thinks he has been talking to the Lord, but he has been so wrong on so many things, that he might have been talking to Satan.

Christ will forgive anything if you sincerely confess to him your sin and ask for forgiveness, but many returning veterans are overwhelmed with what they have done.

There are a number of other things we could pray for when it comes to our troops. We could pray they get the body armor they were promised by the President, and we might as well add to that prayer the vehicle armor the President promised too, but that is praying for their bodies. Their souls are way more important, especially if you think about how long eternity is.

So maybe praying that our troops will realize that they have a Christian moral responsibility to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ will help them more than anything else we pray for. The President of the United States can not defend our troops' souls before God. Their souls will be judged by our Lord, and no matter what George Bush says, each trooper must decide for himself or herself, if what they are doing in Iraq or any other American war is within God's Law.

Praying for our troops might just be the greatest support we can give them on a daily basis.

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