My wonderful wife and I were married in a beautiful ceremony at Fort McPherson, Georgia, on July 14, 1990.  Our honeymoon ended July 31, and I flew back to the Army's 1st Armored Division the next day. 

She was going to move to Germany where I was a cavalry scout.

Seventeen years.  That's how long we’ve been happily married.

And that’s also how painfully long the U.S. has been fighting the on-again-off-again war with Iraq.  There was Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Provide Comfort, the Persian Gulf War, the Gulf War, the no-fly-zone-sanctions, Iraqi Freedom, and now the Iraq War debacle. 

Oh, what a strange trip this has been.  For the uninitiated, pick up “Second Front,” by John R. MacArthur, the publisher of Harper’s Magazine, to learn about the rampant government, media, and corporate deceit before the first Iraq War fiasco in 1990 - 1991. 

Our scout platoon in the 7/6 Infantry was awakened in our barraks in Bamberg, Germany on August 2, 1990, and we went on a training mission where we learned that Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Over the next few months, the news reported how the U.S. ambassador, on behalf of then-President George H. W. Bush, gave the green light to Iraq for their invasion of Kuwait.  The news was then flooded with comments of how Bush drew a line in the sand and would not let the invasion stand.

There were other stories about how Donald Rumsfeld sold chemical warfare agents ("dual use items") to Iraq on behalf of the Reagan - Bush administration in the 1990s.  That’s how he "knew" where they were in 2002 and 2003 – Rummy had the receipts.

There was even more news in 1990 claiming Iraqi soldiers were murdering Kuwaiti babies, and how Iraqi soldiers were ready to invade and capture Saudi Arabia.  These stories turned out to be lies planted by none other than Colin Powell and a Kuwaiti media consulting firm.  Powell would tell the "big lie" again in 2003 saying Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Just before the 1990 election, then-President Bush sent troops to Saudi Arabia and then sought permission to fight from a cowardly Congress, claiming an imminent threat from an Iraq armed by the U.S. and authorized by the U.S. to invade and occupy Kuwait.  This scenario of mixing war and elections was repeated in 2002.

On December 24, 1990, our unit landed in Saudi Arabia to the sound of Elton John's "Levon," written by Bernie Taupin, singing to us that is Christmas Day and New York Times says god is dead and the war's begun.  Ominous and prescient.

After the massacre of routed and retreating Iraqi troops along the "Highway of Death," then-President Bush exhorted the Iraqi civilians to rise up against Saddam Hussein, only to leave them twisting in the wind as the Iraqi Republican Guard mercilessly decimated them while U.S. soldiers stood idly by.  And then Rumsfeld thought the Iraqis would greet us with flowers? Insanity.

Seventeen years later, I look back at how the Gulf War was launched based on lies, and then the Iraq War was started on lies, and then how veterans got caught in the middle in a system unprepared for modern warfare.  First is was the "toxic soup" of the Gulf War, and now it is TBI and PTSD from the Iraq War.

Seventeen years after the start of the war, the Department of Veterans Affairs (finally) opened up a toll-free 24/7 suicide prevention hotline.  Way late, yet fantastic. 

Seventeen years after Desert Shield began, VA opened a Benefits Delivery Center at Fort Bragg to assist new war veterans with all their VA healthcare needs and other VA benefits.  About time, yet a very good deed. 

Unfortunately, more than 400,000 veterans are waiting to enter an already crowded and over-burdened VA healthcare and claims system.  A shocking quarter million Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans were already treated at VA.  This casualty statistic of walking wounded doesn't count veterans who see private doctors, state or local clinics, or visit a college medical center.

My wife never made it to Germany.  But I made it home with a another vow to learn the lessons of the past so that our Nation doesn’t make the same mistakes about going to war and so that our Nation remembers our obligation to those who stand between a bullet and our Constitution.

For my wife, thanks for standing by me for seventeen years of happiness in the eye of the hurricane, and may we enjoy many more well into the future with our two wonderful daughters.

For the world, seventeen years of increasingly violent carnage abroad and significantly reduced freedom at home is a very steep price to pay for a very long time.

For the 700,000 Gulf War and 1.6 million Iraq War service members sent to war, and especially for our families, we are there to protect and defend our Constitution and to make sure we get the healthcare and benefits we need when we return from combat.

It took 17 years for the total number of Gulf War veterans treated at VA to reach 250,000.  However, it took only five years for the total number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans treated at VA to pass 250,000.  If VA isn't fixed now, they are on the fast track to catastrophic failure.

As Bono in the rock band U2 song "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," laments, "how long, how long must we sing this song” where war constantly escalates, too many veterans beg for timely assistance, and our freedoms are constantly eroded?

Now is the time for veterans to take up the fight here at home to make sure what we fought for is preserved, and that those who fought with us are taken care of.