Posted on 12/19/2004 9:13:00 AM PST by Kitten Festival
The current war in Iraq and operations in Afghanistan, my personal recollections and the television interviews with veterans from wars past remind me of the adage that the more things change the more they remain the same.
There is an incredible outpouring of support from the home front to our men and women under fire way over there. Bumper stickers, websites, and Herculean efforts from organizations and private citizens have all converged to send support, love, prayers and badly needed personal comfort items to our warriors. Dont think for a minute that these efforts are not deeply and personally appreciated by each and every one of them. It is what gets them up in the morning, to strap on web gear, check weapons, radios, intelligence reports, load extra ammo, do the required maintenance on their vehicles, issue or receive their operation orders and head out into the lair of the beast one more time.
Heres a classic depiction of the degree to which they are grateful. A couple of days ago, I caught a brief clip from a cable channel that had an embed dogging a young Marine on patrol about why he thought he was there, etc. The Marine was completely forthright and responded something like, Look, Im not here for these people, Im here to make it easier for the folks back home...save them from all this.
This essay is extraordinary.
Yesterday, I went and had a look at Washington Post's faces of the dead Web page, their effort to make us all turn antiwar by looking at the faces of the dead. Their effort had the exact opposite effect - I looked at all those beautiful and different faces killed by islamofascist terrorists and all I could think was - these men and women must not have died in vain. I felt my resolve strengthen. Quite the opposite of the WashPost wanted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.