December 22, 2004 - It is the shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice. The midday sun has reached the Tropic of Capricorn and started its yearly journey northward toward the Tropic of Cancer. It is Christmas time when we sing of peace and goodwill to men. Nineteen America soldiers were killed on the shortest day of the year north of the Equator. Four American employees of Halliburton and three of the company’s sub-contractors died. They were not engaged in a military occupation. They did not die in unarmored Humvees on patrol in the streets and alleys of Iraq. They died eating lunch, herded together in a mess tent on a supposedly secure American base outside Mosul in northern Iraq. Fifty-Seven more were wounded in the attack. How seriously we do not know. Whether the count of the dead will rise we do not know. How the attack was accomplished, whether by indirect mortar or rocket fire or by an infiltrator setting off an IED, we do not know. We know only the casualty count on the Winter Solstice of 2004. Halliburton says its four employees bring the count of the company’s employees killed in Iraq to sixty-two. The military count of dead Americans tallied by CNN was pushed to 1,324 – a regiment of the dead answering a last roll call.

At the White House the press secretary said that the attack showed that the enemy was getting desperate. Their commander praised his troops for their brave response, turning to assist their dead and dying comrades. The President spoke of their vital mission of bringing democracy to the oppressed people of Iraq; of their mission to make the world a more peaceful world. At least nineteen soldiers and seven civilians know peace on this the longest of nights.

The annual struggle between light and darkness begins anew. With the dawn the light will grow and the darkness begins to recede as day invades the night and the sun and moon contest for supremacy. With the dawn 19 soldiers and 4 American civilians will commence their long journey home. They’ll be home for Christmas. We can count on them, and the snow, and the mistletoe, and the holiday shoppers, and the quiet jingling of the cash registers. All is quiet on the home front.

Peace on Earth. Good will to men.