I borrowed this from somewhere else, but I thought you all would appreciate it.
Izzy
No man is left behind.
It sounds like such a simple thing. We’ve seen it in so many movies. It’s almost a cliché at this point.
The reality though, is that this belief isn’t prevalent everywhere. Most other countries will not send troops back in over and over again to rescue one or two injured or captured citizens or soldiers. We’ll do that very thing over the body of our fallen comrade.
It sounds like such a simple thing, but it isn’t. It is the fundamental difference between our worldview and that of our enemies. We look at another human being and say “I value your life. You are not an expendable tool to be used towards some greater good. I will keep coming back for you until I achieve my mission and save you or I die trying.”
No single day in the history of the world juxtaposed the difference between good and evil, between our feelings towards our fellow human beings and the worldview of our enemies as 9/11.
Moments after terrorists killed themselves, their friends on the plane that didn’t even know they were about to be executed, and three thousand innocent civilians, we, as Americans, answered. Firemen, police, EMTs, and everyday normal citizens rushed into the burning buildings over and over again to save their fellow man.
That is good and decent.
That is an ethos worth preserving – worth fighting for.
And, I believe, when I look at the men and women of the Armed Services, is why we do it.
The people who rushed into those buildings are heroes. There is no more selfless an act than putting yourself in harm’s way for another. They deserve our utmost thanks and respect.
I think the one thing that we miss though nowadays, in the midst of our political arguments, name-calling, and complaints about the direction our nation is going, is that for ten years the men and women of the United States Armed forces have been making the same decisions, albeit on a smaller level in battles across Iraq and Afghanistan. For ten years, firefighters and police have rushed into buildings to save others, often at the loss of their life.
The day was horrible. The men and women who gave their lives extraordinary, but I honestly believe that the most amazing part is that if this same atrocity happened in Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh, or even any small town anywhere in this nation, the reaction would be the same. We’d rush into that building. We’d not stop until everyone was safe.
Because in AMERICA, no man gets left behind.
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Originally Posted by bacpacker
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