Each in his own time

The American Thinker | Dec. 19, 2004 | Dave St. John

[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. Don’t 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.

Here’s 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, I’m not here for these people, I’m here to make it easier for the folks back home...save them from all this”.

[Kitten Festival]

Our troops hear us, our troops understand us, and our troops appreciate our efforts to appreciate them. It's all real.

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.