From David Bellavia:
The war in Iraq was no different. While many scurried to blame Donald Rumsfeld, General Franks or President Bush for losing the war in Iraq, they bet against the American fighting men and women to turn the tide of the war. “The mission” in Iraq was evil. The troops would never be maligned as they were in Vietnam.
I don’t begrudge these people. They simply will never get it. They are the type of people you need to protect in a society. They are innocent and naive.
It is the job of the warrior to hide them under the bed and tell them it will be okay, before we run off to combat the threat.
The ones that hold my contempt are those who, even today, know of the sacrifice made, the incredible progress gained and still will not acknowledge what was won on the ground in Iraq. They cheapen the sacrifice of how it was earned. Operation Iraqi Freedom is no more.
Operation New Dawn (the exact same name of the Battle of Fallujah in November 2004) is the new name of the deployment to Iraq.
What we achieved in the face of an implacable enemy, overcoming many in our own government willfully ignorant of our struggle, is what I believe to be the defining moment of my generation. The veteran today is the embodiment of what it means to be an American. Even when our valor was used for political sport, we continued to serve quietly.
The best America has to offer went to Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in the War on Terrorism. Some on the right grew tired of th war and turned against it. The left hated it from the start, and eventually got no less a personage than the Senate Majority Leader to assert that it was lost. We still hear the complaints and lies about why we went there, and what we did.
The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who served know better – and those who never broke faith with them also know better. And it is comforting to know that even after decades of lies, moral degradation and spreading cowardice that our nation can still raise such a military force.
Now, we who didn’t fight must prove worthy of those who did – to ensure that the America they fought for is a land of freedom, of decency and of respect for honor and sacrifice. To this cause I pledge the rest of my life and all of my efforts. It still won’t equal the sacrifice of even one of those who died. It is, literally, the least I can do – but it will be done, and as they never quit in worse circumstances than I’ll ever face, so I will never quit.
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