Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2008 – The Marine Corps’ mission and mystique continue to attract high-quality recruits who join up to fight America’s enemies, that service’s senior officer said here today. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway (right) discusses military issues with National Journal Magazine correspondent and author James Kitfield (center) and Timothy B. Clark, editor-in-chief of Government Executive Magazine, during a Government Executive-sponsored event at the National Press Club, Feb. 14, 2008. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. All of the military services continue to meet their recruiting quotas. Yet, while some services...

KFAR MALAL, Israel - In moments of reflection, Ariel Sharon liked to describe boyhood images that always drifted back to the land: tilling the sun-hardened soil with his father, the sticky-sweet aroma of lemon groves, daybreak hikes into the desert that slope down to the Dead Sea. As Sharon's prominence grew, so did the significance of these tales to Israel's collective conscience. They form part of the core of a modern mythology that was laid down bit by bit as Sharon moved from the fields to the battlefields to politics, creating a larger-than-life aura for a nation hungry for heroic...