Freedom's Fidelity

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Thank You Veterans

A simple, sincere thank you. What else do you say to those that demonstrated the will to make the ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of those they've never met? Nothing I can think of. Thank you again.

Here's some Veterans Day reading that is worth your time:

Corporal Plank was a volunteer, not a conscript. So you could argue that he had an idea of the risks associated with his profession, though I wonder about that. Even so, it seems, when you think about it, amazing, crazy almost, that young men and women still die simply because we ask them to. I look at photographs of tall, shiny-faced teenagers in uniforms, who leave behind parents who loved them just as much as I love my kids, and I am staggered that in 2003 we continue to require their sacrifice. We, who no longer believe that the dead live on, and that those who die have, therefore, lost everything.

And there's this observation:

There are other lessons. War is a great and unpredictable misfortune, but today, as Rwanda showed us, it is not necessarily always the greatest. Deferred war can be worse than early action. Appalling though it is to say so, badly applied sanctions can cause more suffering than carefully applied bombs.

There's much more, you should read it all.

Also, this piece from Donald Sensing examines a new kind of veteran in a new kind of war and is well worth reading.

(Both links via InstaPundit.)

posted by Paul  permalink | |