Contrasting independence here, there

The historic events of this past week in Iraq, its fresh sovereignty and the trial of Saddam Hussein, put in perspective for me the struggles waged for independence and freedom. As we in the United States celebrate our independence from colonial tyranny, the Iraqi people were given back their sovereign nation, and free to write their own discourse in history -- free from a brutally oppressive dictator.
The change-over took place June 28, two days early, taking all the troops here by surprise. We were being prepared for a round of insurgent violence by terrorists who cannot seem to embrace the concept of unity. The terrorists and foreign fighters continue to try to divide this country, which is eager for independence. In retrospect, it was a smart move by the United States to take the wind out of the terrorists, who want to splinter this once again sovereign nation.
On this first Iraqi independence day, I found myself in Baghdad for several hours while we waited for our important cargo. That day we carried Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and several other congressmen, from Baghdad to a base in the Persian Gulf. The group of congressmen had met with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Ghazi Al-Yawer of the new Iraqi government before leaving Baghdad.
We had the opportunity to ask this entourage of our nation's leaders if this day meant anything to the people of Iraq and if peace would prevail. They assured us that the Iraqis were eager to move forward and create a progressive Middle Eastern country with the rest of the world's help. As we departed Baghdad and climbed into the skies above Iraq, with our night vision goggles, our aircrew witnessed explosions, tracer gunfire, and much fighting on the ground.
What I thought
I remember thinking of the struggles our nation bore at its beginnings of independence. The struggle our founders worked through for fair representation, questions of regional governments or a much larger central government, and ultimately the issue of oppression -- slavery -- within our nation that divided Americans during our Civil War. At its beginnings, America struggled for nearly a century until after the Civil War, where we could then call ourselves a truly "United" States. I wondered if Iraq's growing pains among Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis would thrust this nation into a civil war or if they would have the strength to work through their differences peacefully.
So much has been waged on our part to help Iraq reach this independence. I'm confident our American heroes would fight for this endeavor all over again if it meant people could enjoy even a taste of the independence we enjoy in America. The debts of freedom have been paid by those soldiers who will never go home to enjoy the independence of our country again and by those families like Army Spc. Keith Maupin of Batavia, who was captured earlier this year, still awaiting word of his fate and holding onto hope that all this struggle would not be in vain.
I pray that as this liberated country begins to write its new history, its citizens remember the great opportunity that is borne through the sacrifices of an Army so far from home. It is my hope that peace will prevail and the Iraqi people will embrace the spirit known in America and embodied in the words of James Garfield, that "territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life."
XMaj. John Boccieri, a C-130 pilot in the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, is assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Forces in Southwest Asia. He is also the 57th District state representative.