One of the members of my team e-mailed yesterday with the sad news that a young member of his extended family, a soldier named Michael, had been killed in Iraq. At the end of his e-mail, this 20-year Navy man expressed the sentiment of our nation in the question: "When do we say enough is enough?"
In addition to expressing my condolences for his family's loss, I felt compelled to challenge the unspoken assertion that Michael's sacrifice had been for a lost cause. I told my friend that,
"I have to believe that his sacrifice makes our country stronger and safer. I am so proud to be associated with you and yours and the tiny percentage of our nation’s population that has answered the call to secure the freedoms of the rest. No soldier who as ever given his life for America’s interests has done so in vain. I assure you, our warriors’ sacrifice and service during this time will not be in vain and will add eternal light to our great nation’s beacon of freedom. There are great accomplishments being made by our uniformed men and women in the name of freedom, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world, despite the self-serving pronouncements of many at home who denigrate those efforts. I will remember Michael."
I am, frankly, disgusted with the spineless anti-war political manuevering and posturing from all but a few of the more principled of our nation's political leadership. Most of the current war critics were all for taking the fight to the terrorists and the states sponsoring their barbarity, when the popular mood in our nation was for that. Now that our people are turning against the war effort, self-serving politicians are attempting to grab power by cynically bending to the American populace's fickle will.
On the other hand, most of the "hawks" in support of the war are not willing to take the needed steps to put this nation on a true war footing. I saw a picture the other day of some graffitti scribbled on a white board in a Marine combat outpost in Iraq that read, "America is not a war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall."
Michael was a soldier--a member of a tiny minority of our nation's men and women who answer our country's call to service. Michael's service was selfless. His sacrifice was honorable. His, and his comrades', accomplishments in the name of freedom are greater than most in our nation will ever recognize. Michael and his fellow American freedom warriors deserve our honor, and one of the best ways to honor them is to demand that our political leadership make the hard decisions to truly take our entire nation to war against the nations supporting terrorism as a tactic against freedom. Until the political mullahs and ayatollahs exhorting their nations to jihad against the west are silenced (read: crushed by force of arms), we will not truly honor the sacrifice of our warriors in the cause of freedom.
This Marine will remember Michael.
1 comment:
Ed:
Thought you might be interested in this message I sent out last week.
Michael
P.S. Send me your new email address.
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Dear Friends:
I returned yesterday from a trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where I had the privilege of attending a ceremony on Thursday where 21 Soldiers were presented the Purple Heart Medal, including three from the Third Infantry Division. Many of these Soldiers were also presented with EIBs, CMBs and CABs.
I want to tell you about one "Dog Face Soldier" I met Thursday. Last week he was able to travel to Fort Stewart to attend the Ceremony dedicating three trees on Warriors' Walk to the memory of his crew-mates who lost their lives in the attack that took his leg. He then returned to Washington, where he is still an out-patient at WRAMC. As he received the Purple Heart, this Army Sergeant was flanked by his brother, a Marine PFC, while the rest of their family looked on. When the Adjutant announced: "Attention to Orders," this young NCO, with the leg of his ACU trousers neatly tucked under the stump of his left leg, pushed himself up from his wheel chair and stood smartly at attention . . . on his one leg. This is what we mean by "Rock of the Marne!"
Following that Ceremony, the 1st Brigade Combat Team Rear Sergeant Major and I visited eight wounded Third Infantry Division Soldiers who are in-patients at WRAMC. Every one of them has a positive outlook. I saw more smiles than frowns. Wives and Parents talked positively of the support they have received and the care their Soldier has been given. One Soldier in Intensive Care, with a large wound visible, wanted to tell us his story, even with a very sore throat after being extubated just a couple of hours earlier. The wife of another Soldier told us that she was quickly filling up the notebook where she is listing all the cards and letters they have received, many from folks they don't even know.
I am more deeply concerned, however, about the wounds that are not visible. Four times a month I teach a class on combat stress to Soldiers who are preparing to deploy. While we are treating the physical wounds from the bullets and shrapnel, we cannot ignore the mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual wounds, even when the Soldiers themselves would prefer to ignore them. The future of the young heros and our society over the next fifty years depends on it! I constantly hear Vietnam Veterans says, "We want them to have everything that we didn't get." Many of them are still struggling inside to make sense of their expetiences after thiry or fourty years.
Continue to pray for our wounded Soldiers, their Families and all those who care for them.
Michael
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