Dean Barnett echos my thoughts about criticizing the 15 British seamen and marines:
IT MAY SEEM EASY AND UNSEEMLY FOR A KEYBOARD WARRIOR like me to criticize the conduct of the British troops. Perhaps it is too easy; I have never been in a situation comparable to the one these men (and woman) were in. I can’t say with any confidence how I would respond.
But I can say with some confidence how I would hope to respond; I hope my response would be nothing like that of the British seamen. And I’d like to think my life experience has helped me arrive at this worldview. A half-decade of serious illness has forced me to accustom myself to looking death squarely in the eye on an ongoing basis. At some point, you come to a realization that death is inevitable. And you also come to appreciate that there are things worse than death. Just as there are things worth living for, there are things worth dying for. One’s own honor and especially the honor of one’s country must be among those things if you don the uniform of your country’s military.
I have not had serious illness in my life and I've never served in the military so I don't have the life and death experiences Dean and the British sailors have faced. Nonetheless, I have been critical and I do feel somewhat guilty about that. I have enormous respect and admiration for our military. I am very much aware and so much more appreciative of the sacrifices our men and women in uniform (and their families) make for me. I am so proud of how our troops represent our country and I guess I have expectations, right or wrong. I also respect and appreciate the sacrifices our allies are making in the War on Terror.
My Father was in the Army during World War II, stationed in Germany, and although he never talked about it much, I know from aunts and uncles what he saw there. And I know beyond doubt he believed it was worth dying for. Like Dean, I hope I would be the same. Whether I would be brave enough to follow through, I'll never know. I do know, right or wrong, I wish the British had fought back. I hate that Iran was able to capture them so easily. I hate that Iran was able to use them for propaganda. And I hate this picture of the British sailors and marines waving bye-bye to their captors as if they were leaving a party.
Continuing Dean Barnett's post:
In spite of the foregoing, I understand and acknowledge that my résumé for discussing such matters is slight. But MSNBC military analyst Jack Jacobs’ is not.
Jacobs won the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam. According to his Medal of Honor citation, Jacobs received the Medal “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”
With his company under intense enemy fire and the command group having suffered heavy casualties, “Capt. Jacobs assumed command of the allied company, ordered a withdrawal from the exposed position and established a defensive perimeter. Despite profuse bleeding from head wounds which impaired his vision, Capt. Jacobs, with complete disregard for his safety, returned under intense fire to evacuate a seriously wounded advisor to the safety of a wooded area where he administered lifesaving first aid. He then returned through heavy automatic weapons fire to evacuate the wounded company commander. Capt. Jacobs made repeated trips across the fire-swept open rice paddies evacuating wounded and their weapons. On 3 separate occasions, Capt. Jacobs contacted and drove off Viet Cong squads who were searching for allied wounded and weapons, single-handedly killing 3 and wounding several others. His gallant actions and extraordinary heroism saved the lives of 1 U.S. advisor and 13 allied soldiers.”
[...]
Jack Jacobs watched the English press conference where the soldiers’ Captain declared that “fighting back was simply not an option.” Like me, Jacobs was horrified. Because of his military experience, Jacobs was personally outraged as well.
Asked by an MSNBC hostess for his feelings about the released soldiers and their press conference, Jacobs inveighed on-air, “That was the most disgusting, disreputable, dishonorable performance I can remember in more than 40 years of my relationship with the military service. I think every man every woman, who wears the uniform or has ever worn the uniform of his country, no matter what country it is, ought to be disgusted by this…Words can’t express my disgust.
It was a critical confrontation in the War on Terror and the good guys lost.
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