Free Republic

Since President Barack Obama announced that “a small team of Americans” had killed Osama bin Laden, US government officials have carefully stuck to the line that they will not talk about which units were involved. Obama did not say it was the SEALs. In numerous television appearances, Obama’s counter-terrorism chief John Brennan didn’t and his deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough didn’t. Despite the numerous news reports that named the SEALs, none of the anonymous briefers from the CIA and Pentagon would confirm it.

I wrote a commentary recently about my husband’s upcoming third deployment. In that article, I referred to him as a hero. When he read it, he zeroed in on that word and said I was wrong, that he wasn’t a hero – just another Soldier doing what he was told to do. I explained to him my reasons for describing him a hero: because he was able to leave his family and step foot on a plane when he knew he may not come back. Because he was one of the people who volunteered to do that. Because he saw...

In his great book, Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground, Robert Kaplan writes about spending months embedded with various American military units in far-flung corners of the world. Their acceptance of him and their common intellectual ground make him start to think he is one of them -- then he has a moment of extreme clarity as combat breaks out in Fallujah: "Running into the fire rather than seeking cover from it goes counter to every human instinct-trust me. I had started deluding myself that they weren't much different from me. They had soft spots, they got sick,...

The 24/7 news cycle destroys and distorts context and perspective; it befogs the memory. Think 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom On February 2, 2005 several articles appeared announcing the fact that Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith of Tampa, Florida would become the first Medal of Honor recipient among Soldiers participating in the Iraq war. The St. Petersburg Times reported that President Bush will present the posthumous award to Smith’s wife Birgit at a White House ceremony, possibly in March. Staff Sgt. Smith earned the medal for actions above and beyond the call of duty...