Inappropriate Wedding Songs Some songs that people want as wedding songs are just not well suited for the occasion….

As the perpetual asker of favors, could you change that to ‘I hope you click’, ‘please click’, ‘you should click’ etc? Something about that phrase forces me not to click the link.

Thanks!

-Catullus: ‘Hail & Farewell’

Upon reaching the end, I refused (and refuse) to tarnish my memory of that article by clicking on the Digg link, no matter my morbid curiosity over what comments the Diggbats have left.

…paltry politicians in Washington and Baghdad who squabble for precedence while lifeblood is spent and spilled by young people whose boots they are not fit to clean.

The essence, right there, of why his support for the war has cooled of late. There were no names named, or parties pilloried. It’s a blanket indictment of the system by a man who does not want any sacrifices made in vain.

doriangrey on October 5, 2007 at 8:42 PM

I concur, very, very well said doriangrey.

On the 15th of January last, he was on patrol and noticed that the Humvee in front of him was not properly “up-armored” against I.E.D.’s. He insisted on changing places and taking a lead position in his own Humvee, and was shortly afterward hit by an enormous buried mine that packed a charge of some 1,500 pounds of high explosive.

doriangrey on October 5, 2007 at 8:42 PM

Very well said indeed.

Spc. Matthew T. Grimm

Sgt. John E. Cooper

Sgt. Ian C. Anderson

Kept the email from a family member in Mosul (and still is until 4th BCT rotates back in 60-something days:

Yep D, thats him, good Kid, only 23, I think he was the oldest in the crew, except for the interpreter, we call them TERPS, also Sgt Anderson wife who was also in the military was here in another unit, and they just had a new baby about 6 months agao and was with the grandparents, It also didn’t mention the one that was shot in the back or the one that had his legs crushed.

To have published words that move the human soul to actions with inescapable consequences is indeed a heavy burden to bear especially when the reality of those inescapable consequences are brought so poignantly home. The question here which must surly haunt Christopher’s thoughts and dreams is, have I been as responsible with my words as I could have been.

I know that Christopher Hitchen’s will never read these words that I write, nor shall they hold such preeminence as those Irish poet’s and authors he quotes. But I dare, yes I dare suggest to Christopher, that were his ideas of so little value, had they been so far off the mark, then a man of such character as Mark Daily has by his actions proven himself to be would never have considered them worthy of considering let alone following.

Let not your heart be troubled Christopher, for I though I be nobody of any repute, do tell you. There are ideas and ideologies and virtues in this world for which the sacrifices given in their name are indeed worthy of those sacrifices.

Lt. Mark Daily did indeed prove that he believed this very self same thing when he wrote to his dearest wife,

One thing I have learned about myself since I’ve been out here is that everything I professed to you about what I want for the world and what I am willing to do to achieve it was true. …

My desire to “save the world” is really just an extension of trying to make a world fit for you.

His life was not a life thrown away for ideas unworthy of his sacrifice. He was a gallant and heroic figure of a man who understood the risks he took and the reason that he undertook them. Yes, Christopher, we all grieve with his family for their loss. And likewise we grieve for you, for it is a truly noble human being who in moments like this search their soul asking Am I responsible for this tragic event.

In this I answer you, no your’s is not the responsibility, save that you through your words have brought out the finest that their is in any human being, the selfless dedication required to place thoughts of ones own safety and comfort aside to advance the greater good for those unable to make such advances for themselves.

I know that you are not a man of religion nor will any exposition of religion bring you comfort of any kind, yet none the less I leave you with the words of Jesus Christ, no greater love hath an man than he lay down his life for another.

Lt. Mark Daily has shown the truth of that statement whether you believe in a god or not. For he, in a deliberate act of selfless dedication to ensure that the world he and his family lived in would be a better place than that which he found it. You Christopher bear if any responsibility at all, that of encouraging a young man to leave this world a better place than he found it.

I say to you, feel the sorrow of one who paid the ultimate price, but let not that sorrow sway you from the conviction that you have published from which this noble soul drew strength be diminished. Fall not back from that position which would inspire any person to make their world a better place than that which they found it to be.

I’ve never really admired Hitchens. That he is turning against the war comes as no great surprise. He also turns his back on the Almighty.

Thank you for posting that story—

Jan. 31, 2007: 2LT Mark Daily’s message reaches the Senate floor

Feb. 18, 2007: “I genuinely believe the United States Army is a force of good in this world”

I have grown coarsened and sickened by the degeneration of the struggle

Hitch, please keep the sordid politicians apart from we who fight (and are doing our best to make things in Iraq worthy of the sacrifices made by those like LT Daily). If you turn against the war, you turn against Daily, me and everyone else you profess to be worthy.

And my favorite line in the article,

(Mark Daily told his father how dismayed he was by the failure of leadership at Abu Ghraib) and by the paltry politicians in Washington and Baghdad who squabble for precedence while lifeblood is spent and spilled by young people whose boots they are not fit to clean.

That pretty much applies to everyone in washington, either party and including the vets among them.

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
- Charles Mackay

It is a beautiful and poignant tribute and I can’t imagine reading it and not getting choked up.

Thanks, Allah!

I have a photograph of him, standing bareheaded and contentedly smoking a cigar, on a rooftop in Mosul. He doesn’t look like an occupier at all. He looks like a staunch friend and defender. On the photograph is written “We carry a new world in our hearts.”

That alone made this article worth reading.

Just beautiful.

If America can spontaneously produce young men like Mark, and occasions like this one, it has a real homeland security instead of a bureaucratic one.

Yep, it sure does. RIP Lt. Mark Daily. Maybe one day more of the nation will appreciate men like you in the way that the Kurdish man in the city of Dahok did.

Big ups to Hitchens for following through with the family.