As thousands more soldiers from The Mountain Post are heading to Iraq, there was little mention that Friday was the seventh anniversary since the start of the war in Iraq.

As the U.S. enters another year of the war, some people seem to be forgetting about it. Even the White House failed to mention anything about the start date.

But in a military community like Colorado Springs, it is hard to forget that more than four thousand men and women have lost their lives since the war started seven years ago.

"These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,” said President George W. Bush in a 2003 address. With that announcement thousands of American troops were sent off to war.

"It's a tragedy for Americans to, so quickly, forget the sacrifices that were made by us troops in Iraq,” said Joe Barrera, a Vietnam War combat veteran. Barrera spends his time working with other veterans. He told 11 News part of the blame for forgetting the day U.S. troops invaded Iraq has to do with American’s short attention span. "We have, in this country, a pattern of amnesia, in which we forget very quickly events that have happened very recently," said Barrera.

Thousands rallied Saturday, calling for an end to the war with protests in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, CA.

Matters closer to home are reasons the start of the war wasn't on the front lines for some around southern Colorado. The health care debate and the war in Afghanistan are reasons many gave for passing over the war’s start date.

Focus for some troops at Fort Carson is now on Iraq as thousands head there on deployment.

At its height, there were about 170,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, that was back in October 2007. The cost of the war is estimated to be more than 700 billion dollars.