Memorial Day: One Nation, One Moment

posted at 1:58 am on May 24, 2009 by Doctor Zero
[ National Defense ]   

Memorial Day began as a commemoration of the Union soldiers who died during the Civil War. It has since become a day to honor all those who have given their lives to defend the United States of America. The spirits of our soldiers form an unbroken line of courage and fidelity, from the Minutemen who faced a red-coated army of professional troops, ten times their number, at Lexington and Concord… to the men and women who chased a shadowy horde of murderers into the mountains of Afghanistan and the streets of Baghdad. The American soldier never loses heart, even when clad in rags and freezing to death at Valley Forge, or watching from the Middle East as half of America quivers and wilts behind them, and political leaders speak of offering their surrender as cards in an electoral poker game. If I said that America doesn’t deserve the men and women who serve in her military, every veteran reading this would demand I take it back, so I won’t say it. Instead, let me talk about what they deserve… those who will spend Memorial Day wearing uniforms woven from two centuries of the courageous refusal to allow the defense of freedom to be someone else’s responsibility.

The military deserves our respect. They are not helpless children, stumbling blindly through the back alleys of Iraq and waiting to be murdered. They are not fools, tricked into signing their lives away, then sent to die in an imperial war for oil. They are not victims, trapped in a quagmire and waiting for politicians to rescue them. Today’s Army rifleman is the son of the men who rode from the sky into the hills of Ia Drang, and spent the night watching hundreds of enemy soldiers quietly circle around them. Today’s Air Force pilot is the grandson of the men who avenged Pearl Harbor in the skies over Midway Island. Today’s Marine officer carries a ceremonial Mameluke sword, an honor bestowed on the Corps by an Ottoman viceroy after the first time they fought against barbarians in the Middle East, two hundred and five years ago. There is a reason presidents offer congratulations to the graduates of military academies, rather than condolences. Every civilian leader in the United States should look himself in the mirror before he gives a press conference to declare American victory impossible, or speaks of soldiers as if they were his children on the floor of the Senate, and remind himself that his determination and fighting spirit will break long before theirs does. The current President should consider the character of our fighting men and women, before using a Naval Academy commencement address to insinuate that his predecessor made fools of them.

The military deserves our trust. The American soldier is not a bloodthirsty killing machine. No fighting force in the history of the human race has showed greater restraint or concern for civilian casualties. The world is filled with low and treacherous men who are alive today because American troops allowed them to keep their lives, when every rule of war – including the vaunted Geneva Conventions – said they deserved nothing but a swift death. The halls of Congress are filled with low and treacherous men who accuse American troops of murder and atrocities without a shred of proof, and then lack the dignity and honor to resign when their accusations are shown to be hollow lies.

The military deserves our understanding, as we ask them to fight a complex war against vicious and cowardly enemies who regard atrocities as mission objectives. If the animals who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks would send their forces into the open field to do battle against the American military, this war would be settled in an hour… but every Ranger taking fire from Taliban snipers, every medic fighting to save the victims of a suicide bombing, and every technician racing to disable an Improvised Explosive Device knows that hour will never come. The defense of civilians, against a stealthy enemy who specializes in targeting them, requires intelligence – and if the military is to protect those civilians, instead of avenging their deaths, this intelligence must be gathered before the attacks take place. Our fighting men and women deserve better than to watch a faithless, slow-witted political hack throw sand in the eyes of America’s counter-terrorism team, as she digs a hole to hide in. The leaders of our dominant political party should spend more time closing ranks with our nation’s defenders, and less time closing ranks with each other.

The military deserves our support. There is so much we can do to help them, and remind them that no matter what lonely places they must walk in, hundreds of millions of American civilians walk proudly beside them. My lady and I are faithful contributors to the Adopt A U.S. Soldier program. We’ve seen one man safely home after a tour of duty in Iraq, and now we’re doing what we can to help another on duty in Afghanistan. This weekend, you’ll be surrounded by a lot of comforts and luxuries you take for granted. Adopt A U.S. Soldier can put you in touch with some folks who won’t take any of that stuff for granted.

There’s something else you can put at the service of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines serving you: your voice. They can’t speak in their own defense, because they have a code of conduct that forbids it. They follow a noble tradition of military loyalty to civilian authority, stretching back to the great general who won freedom for his fellow Americans… then refused to let them surrender that freedom to him, by making him king. The military relies upon us to answer insults and slander directed at them. They need us to stand against sleazy attempts to disenfranchise them, when they cast their votes from overseas. Every politician who would build a career by declaring our soldiers to be criminals, and appointing themselves as prosecutors… everyone who supports the terrorist enemy by staging shameful circus routines outside V.A. Hospitals… every fool that can’t tell the difference between Minutemen and al-Qaeda butchers… every talking head who vandalizes the military’s honor, by comparing them to vermin who believe the road to victory is paved with the blood and bones of women and children… should find themselves confronted by a united America that stands ready to battle domestic enemies, while their brothers and sisters in uniform handle the foreign ones.

On Memorial Day, we remember those who gave their lives at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Bastogne, Chosin, Hamburger Hill, and other fields of honor throughout our history. We honor those who fought the first battles against the current enemy, including the brave men who died in Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, trying to rescue the hostages taken by Iran. These soldiers suffered and died to build a legacy of valor, gallantry, and compassion that our enemies can barely comprehend. It is no accident that the greatest fighting force the world has ever known declares their primary mission to be the protection of innocent life. They do not fight to conquer territory, or turn captive nations into vassals, or steal precious resources from their rightful owners… and they will always prevail over those who view war as a means to those ends. A resolution of Congress established a national moment of remembrance at three o’clock on the afternoon of Memorial Day. The White House Commission on Remembrance speaks of it as “One Nation, One Moment.” Let us observe that moment of silence together, in union with the living under arms and those who rest beneath the colors of America… then raise your voice, and add it to the arsenal of freedom.

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