After he lost his son Robert in Afghanistan, my friend and colleague in arms, General John Kelly, said, “I think the one thing [the parents of the fallen] would ask is that the cause for which their son or daughter fell be carried through to a successful end, whatever that means, as opposed to ‘This is getting too costly,’ or ‘Too much of a pain in the ass,’ or ‘Let’s just walk away from it.’ They were willing to go where the nation’s leaders told them to go and in many cases gave their lives for the mission. They were willing to see it through literally to their ends. Can we do less?”
