Ten years ago this week, the United States launched the invasion of Iraq. The nation remains divided on the wisdom, strategy and outcome of the war that claimed the lives of 4,488 U.S. service members and left more than 32,000 wounded.  

But there is one certainty—the men and women who honorably fought and served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade have come home to an economy that works even less for them than it does others. Job loss, stagnant wages and a widening gap between working families and the wealthy and Wall Street are some of these problems.  

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a decade ago, some 2.3 million military members have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more continue to deploy leaving their families at home while they serve our country overseas.

Robert Cebina, president of UAW Local 723 in Monroe, Mich., sends us this on the local’s recent fundraising effort.

We recently raised $2,300 during a fundraiser to buy phone cards for U.S. troops overseas. We held the fundraising event, which included a silent auction raffle for donated items and a 50/50 raffle, at the UAW Local 723 Union Hall in Monroe, Mich.