A letter from Iraq

Recently at my daughters 8th birthday party, the flaming liberal husband of my wife's sister commented on how he doesn't understand how soldiers like LT. Ronald Spears of Easy Company 506th PIR 101st Airborne (as portrayed by Matthew Settle in the HBO Series Band Of Bothers) could be willing to do all of the almost super human feats they are famous for. To me the answer was easy. These men had a sense of responsibility to protect and defend their country that is just not shared by today's modern liberal. I also could have pointed out that most of them had a deep rooted faith in God and knew deep in their hearts that if it was there time to die, it was by the will of god that it happened. But of course this would have been useless to say due to the fact he is also an atheist. So in closing I have attached an excerpt of a letter from a Marine stationed in Iraq that pretty much summarizes how our modern day hero's are doing the job of protecting our freedoms

You can spot a good Sergeant a mile away. And the very good ones have a way of owning the ground that they are on to the point where you are conscious that unless you are in their direct chain of command, you are trespassing when you are near their Marines.

In this war, the Sergeants are making decisions every day that have strategic implications and they are making them under the worst conditions imaginable. The thing about these guys, is that if you tried to give them a break or reduce their responsibility, they would quickly tell you that they would rather have more responsibility and are quite sure that given the opportunity and one more machine gun, they could do more.

I want to close by sharing with you that the coalition put a real hurt on the terrorists and criminals this week. I know it is horrifying to see the hostages killed on television but without being able to go into detail, the coalition has compromised and successfully attacked a number of senior terrorists this past week. While this is going on, the men are training new Iraqi soldiers and police officers and continuing to reach out to the people. The young Marines that are doing the work over here are committed young men who believe that they were doing the right thing. There were losses that are tragic. Losing Marines is a profoundly personal thing to their buddies and fellow Marines. However, I have yet to see the young men's will waiver. They just continue to go out their every day and do their job. Like I said before, it is humbling be around them.
Click the link below to read the full letter.
The Green Side