What I find troublesome in his words is a coomon democrat/liberal notion, and that is the lives lost are only validated by succes on the liberal's terms.
I can't think that way. See if this anaology below explains my irritation with the above thought process
If someone jumps in a torrent to save a drowning soul, and they both lose their lives, in spite of the effort made, then the saver has died in vain, and his sacrifice has no meaning? The drowning victim didn't want, or know that he needed the saver's help, so the saver was wrong to try to help him?
Using the same analogy, even if the saver succeeds, and gets the drowner to the riverbank, it couls till be a failure if the drowner turns out to be a suicide, and jumps bavk into the torrent.
Anyway, the way I see life, those sacricing their lives are great because of the effort, and no matter what the outcome, they are heroes. Whether they succeed or not has nothing to do it.
In any rescue effort, one does not stop to calculate the risks, and be sure of a desired outsome before making a risky effort. Just remember where we might all be if Jesus had thought the liberal way, never mind if his blessed mother had.
Just my pre-caffeine mental meanderings... be gentle, I am only half awake.
Oh dear, now I am thinking about Teddy adn Chappaquidick. Anyone want to compare that tragedy to his thinking regarding Iraq?
Not sure my brain is up to it yet.
I agree.
Were I a younger man, I'd have gone and fought just to be a part of something historic. Many, many people consume food, eliminate the same, and then reproduce. This isn't hard as most of the animal kingdom does this routinely.
I'm not minimizing what it takes to raise children into good adults, but it isn't heroism or history making either.
Anyway, the way I see life, those sacrificing their lives are great because of the effort, and no matter what the outcome, they are heroes. Whether they succeed or not has nothing to do it.
In any rescue effort, one does not stop to calculate the risks, and be sure of a desired outcome before making a risky effort. Just remember where we might all be if Jesus had thought the liberal way, never mind if his blessed mother had.
Just my pre-caffeine mental meanderings... be gentle, I am only half awake.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!
- Arthur Hugh Clough