Posted by
SDS on Saturday, December 09, 2006 4:19:34 PM
Lt. J.P. Blecksmith was killed in Fallujah in November of 2004.
Sgt Milton Monzon Jr. was killed in Baghdad in July 2005.
The poet said it best:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow (1)
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.
T
ake up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe 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.
I write of these two men because I attended church with J. P. and I knew Junior. He was my hero. They died to win this war not to withdraw with dignity. They died to make us safe not to satisfy preening vanity.
This is a real war with a real threat to us and to our grandchildren. Real people died to protect us. We owe it to them to suffer whatever crude names, like moron and warmonger, that people throw at us, to suffer snubs and cold shoulders and people being nasty. They died to keep us free. We owe it to them to stand up for what is right. Their supreme courage should draw from us at least a little courage. So the fight is tough. So what. Every fight worth fighting is tough. We are in a clash of ideologies, civilizations, morals. If we lose, a new dark age will descend on the world. We may not win, but each of us owes to the dead who died fighting to fight along with them.