It seemed only fitting, the rains came on Memorial Day to wash out the barbecues, the parades with marching bands playing patriotic music and picnics on the grass.

This was our national holiday, when Americans honor the dead children, forever gone and sleeping in the ground beneath a plastic flag that drips raindrops down on the bronze plaques etched with their names.

Rain has a way of washing away the dust, of cleansing the air, of cleaning the earth, or bringing into focus what is important, and what is not. Rain has a gentle way of hiding the tears of those standing in it.

Somehow this year, Memorial Day was different because of the new reality that is slowly becoming ever more evident every day to all Americans with each new death in Iraq. It is gradually becoming more and more obvious our leaders and politicians have involved us in a war we are all are stuck with and seemingly just do not know how to get out of. This is a war our leaders initiated by invading another sovereign country. Their war has now bogged down and evolved into our war which is without answers and with no apparent solutions, not even a potential resolution or foreseeable ending.

America’s war is against an enemy without uniforms, nationalities, or a country, an enemy who can only be defined in the abstract as an idea or as the state of mind of others. We fight in a far-away land where we are not welcome by the people whose families we are killing in the name of democracy and freedom, in the name of the American way.

We are in a war we cannot win because we do not know how to win it; we are unable to articulate or define what “winning” even means anymore or a strategy to get out of it. This country seems to be drifting aimlessly and without purpose and stuck on empty in a giant whirlpool of morass uncertainty as we pitch billions of dollars a month into the waters trying to stay afloat.

The words of our leaders have turned hollow and without meaning, for their words in the past have proven to be less than truthful, less than honest, more self-serving and selfish to justify their actions. We no longer can trust what they say, or believe what they tell us is happening. For they too, like us, are without answers, without solutions, and people are dying every day directly because of their inability to fulfill their role as both leaders and representatives.

Rather than addressing the most critical issue of this very real war facing this country today, our politicians throw up lame smokescreens and talk of such issues as tax cuts, abortion, gay rights, Jesus, and securing our borders, as if these issues will somehow resolve their war in Iraq, will somehow bring our soldiers home, will somehow get them re-elected.

Perhaps it is because most politicians have never been to war that they can be so callous and in such denial. Perhaps they sleep well at night because it is not their children overseas fighting, not their loved ones coming home as air cargo in a flag-draped box or in a wheelchair missing arms and legs.

Perhaps it is easier for them to not address these realities of war and simply wish it would all just go away. Then they do not have to face the truth they are the ones at fault, the only ones to truly blame; for it was Congress that allowed this national nightmare to start, and congressional members are the only ones who can end it. It is time for politicians to grow up and become adults, become leaders, to finally act responsible for a change, to act in the interest of all Americans.

How many Memorial Days are there in the future with these same questions to ponder, the same looking for answers that never come?

In Vietnam, when the monsoons come, the drumming of rain is constant, never ending. The only thunder comes from distant artillery pieces sending heavy, deadly, spinning shells rattling across the high, gray skies, and the only lightning erupts from the distant explosions as they hit. The wind-driven rain blows sideways, and then, as now, rain had a gentle way of hiding the tears of those standing in it.