If you don't have a loved one or know somebody who's been killed or wounded, it's really easy to go for days without thinking about the war. My goal is to make sure this war ends and that there are services to take care of these men and women when they come home.

While our elected officials lay in their beds at night and sleep comfortably, I lay awake. I worry about my son.

Each day I wake up is a potential nightmare, as I dread that knock on my door that far too many families have already received. The fear I live with is a fact of life for military families with loved ones deployed in a war that should never have happened. It is a reality that far too few politicians understand.

We've really worked hard to . . . keep the focus on this particular war and bringing the troops home because that's the thing that we can all get behind.

Any of us in civilian work can quit without dire consequences, but if my son were to say, 'I'm handing in my pink slip today,' they would say, 'here's your court marshal.

2,000 deaths highlight the cost of this war, but people really need to understand the urgency with which we need to bring [the troops] home.