Novelist Stephen King recently insulted the troops by saying to a room full of children, "If you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's not as bright." The troops poked some fun back at King who I'm sure will take it snobbishly. They'll go about saving the world while King will go back to writing about clowns eating children.
War is a failure. No two ways around it. War is a horrific example of our fallen nature but war itself doesn't preclude love, honor, and sacrifice. In fact, when things are darkest, the light shines all the brighter.
No matter what you think about the War in Iraq, I hope we can all agree that what Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor did was a brave and loving act.
When a grenade bounced off his chest and fell to the floor near his fellow troops, Monsoor acted out of instinct. And yesterday he received the Medal of Honor posthumously.
This from the Washington Post:
His actions didn't stem from a lack of training. His instant reaction was to protect his comrades.That statement says it all for me. You can take all your geopolitical strategies and your arguments for or against the war but yesterday it was about one thing - in the worst of circumstances a young American gave his life for his friends. And, I believe, it is right that we should honor Monsoor and the men and women like him serving our country. I am awed by such bravery and selflessness.
The Navy says he committed a selfless act — jumping on the grenade and taking the full force of the blast.
President Bush presented Monsoor's parents with a posthumous Medal of Honor for their son at an emotional White House ceremony on Tuesday.
Bush quoted one of the SEALS saved by Mansoor as saying, "Mikey looked death in the face that day and said, 'You cannot take my brothers. I will go in their stead.'"
Well, that is it. I know that I have urged many times against precipitously pulling our troops out of Iraq. I know that I have repeatedly urged us to stay the course due to fears that departure could lead to a bloodbath. I know that I have multiple times pleaded with many people that the price for abandonment would be vastly greater than the blood and treasure that we are currently spending staying in Iraq.
However, let the word go forth from this time and place that I was wrong. Deeply wrong. I now profoundly and deeply regret advocating this course of action. I now state firmly and irrevocably my reversal on this critical issue. We must get out of Iraq. Now!
Why the sudden reversal? Why the change of heart? No, I have absolutely no empirical evidence that staying the course is now the wrong thing to do. I don't need empirical evidence. I have better than that. MUCH BETTER.
Angelina Jolie has written an editorial in the Washington Post urging us to stay the course. See?
Now, you might think that a foreign policy based upon a knee jerk reaction opposite of what Angelina Jolie thinks that we should do is crazy. However, I guarantee, GUARANTEE, that following this policy will lead to the correct decision 99.9999% of the time. Therefore, I can only say, all evidence to the contrary, we must get out of Iraq. Now.[WaPo] My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this crisis.
Today's humanitarian crisis in Iraq -- and the potential consequences for our national security -- are great. Can the United States afford to gamble that 4 million or more poor and displaced people, in the heart of Middle East, won't explode in violent desperation, sending the whole region into further disorder?
What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made.
Many Democrats are fearing that things are getting better in Iraq. One Democratic Congressman was stupid enough to say it.
Next month the Petraeus Report on the progress in Iraq is due and of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing a generally positive report. No matter what you think about the war, we should all be hoping things go well. But House majority whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told the Washington Post that a strongly positive report on progress likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party’s efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.
Said Clyburn, “I think there would be enough support [amongst Blue Dog Democrats] to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us…”
Success in Iraq would be "a real problem" for Democrats. You have to worry a little bit when your electoral success depends on a defeat in Iraq.
Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus may have known what he was talking about. The Pope got heaps of grief for quoting the Emperor when he said:
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.As we know, in order to protest the Pope's comments and prove that the emperor was way off base, Muslims rioted in the street and killed Christians. We stand corrected.
