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I finished Lone Survivor a couple of weeks ago. It’s truly a must read.

Though this mission lost 20 great men, there is no reason to believe our leaders learned the lessons that should have been learned. We continue to fight a political war. Lt. Murphy and his men were completely aware of the idiotic limitations that had been imposed but still had the confidence that they would perservere. Fear of being accused of war crimes is causing our leadership — the POTUS and our generals on down — to subject our troops to unreasonable risks while giving the enemy a false sense of their ability. By this, I mean that were we to allow our men to use the full extent of their fighting skill and ability the enemy would not stand a chance.

The encounter with the “goatherders” was not unfortunate; it was inevitable. Those mountains are a war zone. We have all the evidence we could need that those living there are either the enemy or enemy smpathizers. When the encounters allow capture and release when danger has passed, fine. However, in circumstances such as those encountered by Lt. Murphy and his 3 teammembers, there would be no practical means of capture. Elimination of the risk must be the standing order in that situation or the mission should be no-go. For me, the two missing buildings in the New York landscape dictate the former.

This.

Salutes to you Lt Murphy

All give some, some give all.

No, just cry…

And thank God that men such as these live among us.

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders’ fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from failing hands we throw
The Torch: be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders’ fields.

As I understand the situation, the true tragedy here is that those SEALs made a decision based on their fear that the media and the hardcore leftists in the Senate would prosecute them for war crimes if they protected their mission by the killing of those herders who accidentally discovered them.

The False Dervish on October 22, 2007 at 9:56 PM

I heard that from Marcus Luttrell himself in an interview. My copy of his book is on the way…This should be the scandal of the decade.

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who biddest the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy Word,
Who walked on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

http://www.cmohs.org/index.html

PRCalDude on October 22, 2007 at 5:07 PM

Do you know his FOB or PB assignment?

God speed to Lt. Michael Murphy and blessings of thoughts of happy memories for his family.

Little Green Footballs

Allahpundit has a video clip of President Bush awarding Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, New York, with a posthumous Medal of Honor.URL: Little Green Footballs…

May God Rest his Soul and Comfort his family.