While escorting a convoy in Iraq’s Anbar Province on April 9, 2004, Pfc. Chance Phelps was killed when a barrage of bullets riddled his vehicle. Eight days later, Phelps’ remains were buried in Dubois, Wyo. In the time between Phelps’ death and his burial, a uniquely American tale unfolded about the wars tearing this nation apart and a fallen soldier who was only four years older than myself.

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the military provides a uniformed soldier to escort the remains of every fallen comrade until the body reaches its final resting place. Phelps’ passage home would have faded into oblivion had his escort, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, not chronicled the poignant encounters that occurred on Phelps’ fateful trek home. From soldiers delicately placing ice in Phelps’ coffin to a flight attendant handing her worn crucifix to Strobl, America’s compassion for its fallen combatants emanated during the soldier’s last, tragic odyssey.

Unlike most Americans, who are deprived of photos depicting flag-draped caskets being unloaded at Dover Air Force Base, military escorts act as witnesses for the fallen. They observe the veneer of patriotism being stripped away from the faces of casual onlookers and the burden of loss resting on America’s conscience.

The emotionally arduous ordeal of returning Phelps’ remains to his final resting place is chronicled in the film “Taking Chance,” starring Kevin Bacon as Strobl. Beginning on the sand-choked tarmac of an Iraqi airport and ending under the big skies of Wyoming, the film exposes the gaping wound on America’s foreign policy and how the nation as a whole deals with grief.

Both sides of the war issue will have their views reinforced after watching the film. Advocates for America’s Middle Eastern forays will see a heroic soldier who died for a valid cause, while war protesters will see a young man who died for the mistakes of our leaders. Regardless of the audience’s political leanings, any film that effectively conveys the consequences of war is an anti-war film and “Taking Chance” certainly explores the nightmarish effects.

For a country that values honor and service, it is a shame to witness our soldiers treated with greater care in death than in life. Soldiers are sent to the front lines lacking body armor and forced to serve multiple tours of duty, then relegated to overcrowded, decrepit veterans affairs hospitals such as Walter Reed. The rituals we undertake in the wake of a soldier’s death, such as placing the flag at half-staff, executing slow ceremonial salutes and performing “Taps” may provoke some people to place meaningless yellow ribbons on the back of their over-sized SUVS, but they do nothing to quell the loss of life.

Too many gardens of stone dart the American landscape. Some families are left unscathed by the war, and yet other households carry a disproportionate weight for America’s waning imperialist aims. At times, we forget that every marble cross in Arlington National Cemetery represents not only a fallen soldier, but also a grieving family.

President Barack Obama’s recent decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan coming at a time when our military is already stretched too thin. I would like to know how the president plans to tame a country that resisted the imperial aggression of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Communist Russia. Somehow America’s finest minds fail to understand that democracy is spread through ideas and words, not guns and bullets.

Before Afghanistan escalates into “Obama’s Vietnam,” we must ask ourselves one question: How many?

How many more funeral services for fallen soldiers will pack high school gymnasiums to the rafters? How many more acres of Arlington will have to be developed in the coming years? How many?