What our fighting men and women
are really all aboutby JohnHuang2
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For the New York Times, which has fed America a steady diet of defeatist news about the war, the news of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch's daring rescue from captivity was not exactly welcome news.
"Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission," CENTCOM's Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks announced Tuesday night. "The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."
Heroism -- our men and women in uniform embody it. Every one of them. They're America's finest.
Mettle, courage, sacrifice -- for U.S. soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, these are defining traits, not just words. They live by them.
Defending freedom isn't just a job. It's who they are. Patriotism, loyalty, devotion -- these are things they personify.
In combat, through fire and water, they boldly march up and look death in the face defiantly, again and again.
Unflinching and dauntless, against even the terrible perils of battle, our fighting men and women selflessly risk all, a glaring reminder that freedom isn't free.
Many paid the ultimate sacrifice for liberties we enjoy.
On a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach, the tombs of 9,000 U.S. soldiers, killed during the D-Day Allied advance almost 50 years ago, is testament to the price of freedom, a cost real men were willing to pay.
Today, across Iraq, untold acts of valor and courage, too many to mention, help free millions from the clutches of brutal tyranny, Saddam Hussein's.
America's finest are at it again.
We hear and read a lot about the fearsome power of B-2 bombers rumbling in the skies over Baghdad, the technical marvel of M-1 Abrams tanks pounding Iraq's best fighters to pulp, the mind-numbing accuracy of precision-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles. But the deadliest, most lethal fighting force in history is more than just tanks and planes and missiles and bullets.
Our military might is about men, not metal. It's about people not plans.
Gallantry, spirit and valor -- not blueprints -- are what win wars in the real world.
Perseverance and fortitude -- not timetables and expectations -- decides success on the field of battle.
But our military is more than that.
Take this AP wire story by Chris Tomlinson about a 32-year-old Army Ranger and his men:
"'We've got to get her off that bridge,' he said. Capt. Chris Carter winced at the risks his men would have to take. Engaged in a lightning-fast raid for this Euphrates River town, they were battling for a bridge when -- through the smoke -- they saw the elderly woman.
"She had tried to race across the bridge when the Americans arrived, but was caught in the crossfire.
"At first, peering through their rifle scopes, they thought she was dead, like the man sprawled in the dust nearby. But then, during breaks in the gunfire that whizzed over her head, she sat up and waved for help.
"Carter...ordered his Bradley armored vehicle to pull forward while he and two men ran behind it. They took cover behind the bridge's iron beams.
"Carter tossed a smoke grenade for more cover and approached the woman, who was crying and pointing toward a wound on her hip. She wore the black chador, common among older women in the countryside. The blood soaked through the fabric, streaking the pavement around her.
"Medics placed the woman on a stretcher and into an ambulance; Carter stood by, providing cover with his M16A4 rifle. Then she was gone, and Monday's battle for this town of 80,000, 50 miles south of Baghdad, raged on."
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Amazing, isn't it? Risking it all to save the life of an elderly woman the Captain and his men had never met, in the midst of battle, amid deadly danger.
But Capt. Carter's isn't just an isolated case.
The mercy and heroism, courage and compassion exemplified in his story is what our fighting and men and women are all about.
God bless our President,
God bless our troops,
God bless the United States of America!
My two cents..
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