Friday, December 16, 2005
Honor Is Due
This is a great piece by a 31-year-old journalist turned Marine. Mr. Pottinger's commitment to this nation is commendable and laudable, but his reasoning, now that it superb,
Honor is due Mr. Pottinger and all those like him.
When you live abroad long enough, you come to understand that governments that behave this way are not the exception, but the rule. They feel alien to us, but from the viewpoint of the world's population, we are the aliens, not them. That makes you think about protecting your country no matter who you are or what you're doing. What impresses you most, when you don't have them day to day, are the institutions that distinguish the U.S.: the separation of powers, a free press, the right to vote, and a culture that values civic duty and service, to name but a few.He laments such sentiment as cliche, but everytime I've ever been overseas, all I can saw is "Ditto!"
A year ago, I was at my sister's house using her husband's laptop when I came across a video of an American in Iraq being beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The details are beyond description here; let's just say it was obscene. At first I admit I felt a touch of the terror they wanted me to feel, but then I felt the anger they didn't. We often talk about how our policies are radicalizing young men in the Middle East to become our enemies, but rarely do we talk about how their actions are radicalizing us. In a brief moment of revulsion, sitting there in that living room, I became their blowback.I am so grateful that some in our nation still have the common sense to react to such scenes in this fashion as opposed to the timid "stop the cycle of violence" that we see so often.
Honor is due Mr. Pottinger and all those like him.
