Legacy Matters
When I read stories about our men and women in service and I think how lucky we are to have such men. Where do we get them?
Michael Yon tells us in vivid stories, punctuated with marvelous photographs like the one above. He gives us a glimmer of what these men go through when four of their number are blown up in a car bomb. They mourn deeply and the missions keep on rolling.
If Americans really wanted to know their Army, American kids would be swapping trading cards of the battalion commanders and command sergeant majors, company commanders and 1st sergeants, and those legions of unknown squad-leaders who earn three Purple Hearts and decorations for valor before they are old enough to rent cars back home.
Just hours ago, after soldiers of the 2-7 Cavalry bid farewell to their latest fallen, some returned immediately to combat on the streets of Mosul, where they fight on desolate roads tonight, while I stayed back in safety to write these words.
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Posted by Jill Fallon at January 29, 2007 12:50 AM | TrackBack | PermalinkI have often wondered how our young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan deal with the loss of their comrades on a daily basis. I suppose it is nothing more or less than what our boys dealt with in Viet Nam (although the public perception was much different than today). We forget that these "men" are very often nothing more than boys, who go out on patrol, get involved in firefights, risk life and limb to IEDs, RPGs, snipers and armed children and jihadists, witness carnage we can probably not even imagine and still "do their duty" without missing a beat. It is amazing these soldiers do not return home even more emotionally damaged than they do. And, as pointed out, can earn medals for wounds and valor, etc., yet are not old enough to rent cars or in very many cases, buy a bottle of beer.
While I was behind this war in its very first days, it became abundantly clear very soon thereafter that the American people were lied to and putting our boys in harms way for nothing more than personal reasons of some of our leaders is immoral. Our boys must and should be returned to us immediately. They are serving honorably and anything they do in furtherance of their service is very much acceptable, however, we should not continue to send our BOYS into this meatgridder of a "war." ENOUGH already!! And, by the way, I am a Republican.