Is the US the only nation with a birthday?

July 4th is almost upon us.

We celebrate the birth of this country we call the United States of America. I do love living here and have an almost impossible time conceiving of living in any other country. And, one of the things I have noticed in my limited travels in other parts of the world is that many people have that same feeling for the place they view as their homeland. Apparently, for many in our race of humans, we are hardwired with an attachment for home.

That could be one major reason why those who founded this country back in the 1770s faced so much dissension as they tried to persuade people independence was THE solution. It was, after all, a minority who wanted their total independence from the motherland of England. South Carolina did have Francis Marion but we also had one of the most vocal population of loyalists in the colonial land.

The celebration of the birth of our nation is a time for celebrating and, as Americans we have a special form of nationalism and patriotism -- reminding ourselves with eye-popping fireworks, patriotic, martial music how much we love our country. Maybe, as a friend said, we are a bit more demonstrative in the "love" of country than others (at least until World Cup) because our country is so relatively young. It seems to me good to remember that while other peoples don't always make the same display many also love their homelands. In 1969, on July 3 at a place called Go Noi Island in the Republic of Viet Nam I was reminded of that fact. It was there where a booby trap (IED in today's parlance) provided me and several others of my Marine platoon with our own personal fire work. I know that today, somewhere in Afghanistan and maybe Iraq, the same thing has happened to other Marines and soldiers.

As we celebrate our Nation's independence on July 4, 2010, we have Americans and allied fighting forces in places like Iraq, and in villages, towns and provinces of a place we call Afghanistan, on the border between North and South Korea and so many many other locations around the globe facing people who are also willing to die for their beliefs,their ways of life, their homelands.War is a complex endeavor and should never, ever be an easy choice.

I see by the headlines in today's paper more troops are leaving South Carolina for war. The past few days I have walked by my neighbor who is just home from his second recent war tour. I hope we all continue to not only thank them for their service but ask those who make the plans and the policy to ensure there is reason for them there and that we have the resources and will to support for decades after they return.Sometimes wars end, but memories of war go to the grave.