Memorial Day: "Americans will die for freedom..."

Memorial Day: “Americans will die for freedom…”

Reposted for Memorial Day.

An Englishman decides that it is a sentiment not worthy of mockery, after all.

The Americans are more old-fashioned than us, and what is equally admirable, they are not ashamed of being old-fashioned. They know Churchill was a great man, so they put his house on the map. There is a kind of Englishman to whom this sort of behaviour seems painfully unsophisticated.

[…]
But lest these impressions of the United States seem unduly favourable, it should be added that the Americans have not remained in happy possession of their free constitution without cost. Thomas Jefferson warned that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. To the Americans, the idea that freedom and democracy exact a cost in blood is second nature.
[…]
We stood at Gettysburg, scene of the bloodiest battle of all, on a field covered with memorials to the fallen. Here Abraham Lincoln gave his great and sublimely brief address, ending with the hope “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
Again some Europeans will give an unkind smile. All this sounds so Puritan, so naïve and so self-righteous. We cannot help feeling that the Americans ought to have been able to settle their quarrel without killing each other, and, while we cannot defend the institution of slavery, we wonder whether the North had the right to impose its will by force.
[…]
The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.
[…]
But when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say.

These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.

A very moving piece this American was grateful to read.

Check out Chris Muir’s dose of reality.

This 86 year old Vet honors his comrades.

Shauna Fleming, meanwhile has organized A Million Thanks.

President salutes the troops. Literally.

Meanwhile, AJ brings successes in Iraq you might not have read about.

More for Memorial Day:

Flopping Aces says Remember

Ubiquitous Fred Thompson says I Remember
Me Delivering a Message to my Milreaders
A soldier writes a letter to the press
Old Broad says Honor Them

Thoughts on the hell that is war

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