A thought on our place in this world...
My family has a history with this country...
We fought the French to defend the English colonists and,
We fought the English in the Revolution to create the country,
We fought the English to preserve the country,
We fought the Confederacy to free the slaves (that's not true for all enlistees then),
We fought the Spanish to free the Cubans,
We fought the Bosch to save the French,
We fought the Nazis to save the world,
We "fought" the Communists to save the world, and..
I served 27½ years for more than a paycheck or retirement or the joy of serving with wonderful people and was always ready to go and do what I was told to go and do without regard to the personal consequences. I've seen other countries, lived with other nationalities, and I feel that we blessed Americans have a duty. A duty to preserve this country as a bastion of liberty, a duty to oppose evil elsewhere. We aren't doing that when we fail to limit the power of people like Kim or Ahmadinejad or when we expose the world to economic blackmail by radical Islamists, or when we submit to terrorism.
There are many different approaches to these duties, many involve personal risk for somebody and some of those people will die. It was so for my cousin who was killed Aug 7, 1945, it could have been so for my father or for me, or for any of the other 50 or so in our family who served their country (several of whom were wounded or died in service).
It seems to me to be better to have died in service than in some stupid auto accident or such. No, not better for the surviving family, I don't think their situation changes much, but it is less a wasted life. And I find it an astonishing disconnect of logic that some are so exercised at the loss of a serviceperson but support abortion on demand.
Labels: Culture
