Since writers write, one would think that the most painful moments in life would be the easiest to write about. One would think that moments of angst would yield plenty of fodder to feed the machine but that's not always the case. Sometimes turning points in our lives prove so painful and so visceral that you have to have some distance from the experience to comprehend it and be able to adequately describe it and deal with it. That's the way I feel about the war in Iraq. This war has had such a profound effect on my own life and on our country that I think about it every day. It still affects my relationship with my husband. I try very hard not to dwell on it in my discussions with him and that's difficult because he is my best friend.

But still...I think about them every day. More than two thousand American men and women and an estimated thirty thousand Iraqi civilians and soldiers killed in the war. In the New York Times this week their pictures and their names were printed in stark relief in the center section. I thought about each of them all night long. Each of those people and their lives and the families they left behind. The babies that will never know their daddies and mama's and the parent's that lost their child. My heart literally hurts. Then I hear our President say some meaningless statement about 'completing the mission,' and I'm angry and filled with rage to think, they died for nothing. They can't really have died for nothing, can they? It has to have been for something. Something other than some stupid, neo-conservative experiment in middle-eastern democracy cooked up by bunch of gray haired politicians at the White House. It has to mean something.

This week on the Daily Show on Comedy Central Al Franken laughed about impeaching President Bush in 2008 right before he leaves office, after the Democratic Party re-takes the House of Representatives. He chuckled and said the Democrats should impeach Bush just because 'they could.' I thought at the time it was silly but a wonderful idea. Upon reflection I think it sounds like a brilliant plan. If I had time and wasn't tied up working full time to maintain insurance and buy groceries for my family I would start a petition drive to impeach President Bush for starting this unnecessary and immoral war.

It's hard to believe how gung-ho everyone in the United States was about this war just two years ago. Ole Toby Keith was singing about kicking the rag-head's asses in the desert and Rummy had everyone all fired up to just go over drop some bombs and bring the boys home in a couple of weeks. Well we all know those plans didn't exactly go as expected.

At least my personal hero, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards had the balls to admit he was wrong to vote for the war in Iraq. Yesterday, in a Washington Post op-ed piece, John Edwards admitted he was wrong to authorize the Iraq war and called for a gradual withdrawal of our troops after the Iraqi elections. He also called for a renewed diplomatic process that brought the entire world into the effort to bring peace into this part of the world and as part of the good faith effort he called upon the US to remove American contractors who have taken unfair advantage of the turmoil in Iraq to reap windfall profits from the rebuilding effort. Thank God someone has stepped forward to admit the war was a mistake and to call for a withdrawal of our troops and for renewed diplomacy. Our President certainly doesn't seem so inclined.

In the midst of all this chaos I find comfort in prayer. I took solace in these comforting words from Will Willimon, who wrote a special prayer for Sgt. George Alexander, Jr. the 2,000th soldier killed in Iraq. Sgt. Alexander, 34 was a graduate of Chilton County High School and an Alabama native.

A Prayer for George Alexander, Jr.

Lord Jesus, King of Kings, Savior of the World, Prince of Peace, hear this prayer for George, son of Alabama, two thousandth American soldier to die in our war in Iraq. Receive him, we pray a lamb of your flock, a sinner for whom You have died, a cherished and beloved Child of God and one who is at peace at last, because he is with You. George had an Alabama boyhood, an Alabama youth, and Alabama dreams. I pray for his mother, for his family and friends, his church, and all those for whom his death means not only the ending of his dreams, but the beginning of their lifetime of grief and loss. Lord, help us to feel some measure of their pain. Save us from offering cheap consolation or patriotic platitudes in the face of their loss. Instill in our hard hearts a determination to work with you for a government in which we shall make peace as quickly and resourcefully as we make war, a country that loves your righteousness and justice more than our security and power. One and only way, truth and life, give us the grace to live by your word rather than by our weapons. Lord Jesus, You never lifted your hand against anyone, you refused to defend yourself even when unjustly attacked, you resisted violence with peace and nonviolence and you never, ever told us that war was the answer to anything. When will we move from worshipping you to following you?

Seeker and lover of the lost, forgive us our sin of attempting to solve the worlds problems through violence and war, forgives us our willingness to once again allow old people like me to send young people like George to make war on others and to suffer and die to preserve our privileges, forgive us for loving our freedom more than your peace, and for treating your gifts of life so casually. Give us, in our grief for our fallen daughters and sons and equal amount of grief for the deaths of the twenty five thousand Iraqi sisters and brothers in Christ. Grant us a miracle: that George be not only the two thousandth young American to die in this war, but also the last.

Judge of us all, I confess that I have not prayed enough, have not embodied your truth enough, have not been critical enough of our political leaders, have acquiesced to the plans of the initiators and makers of war, rather than to join the ranks of your blessed makers of peace. In Your name, and in heartfelt grief for the loss of George, and in bold confidence in Your coming Kingdom, I pray. Amen.