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November 11, 2006
Remembering the defenders of freedom
Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades' lives while serving in Iraq, is the first Marine to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor -- the nation's highest award for valor -- since the Vietnam War.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent, ending the greatest slaughter the world had ever known. For 21 years it was known as "The Great War" and "The War to End All Wars," until new tyrants forced us to begin numbering our global conflicts. Today, the second war might have been called The Great War Ver. 1.2, but our forefathers settled on World War II.
Today is the day we remember the Americans who sacrificed everything for us. It used to be called Armistice Day, to remember the end of the First World War, but somewhere along the way someone decided to go generic.
I like the old name better, because it reminds us of a specific conflict, and of the men who fought and died in one war. It's why I prefer Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's Birthday to the plainwrap Presidents' Day.
There's nothing wrong with having a generic Veterans' Day -- Hell, no! -- but let's not diminish the opportunity to remember each and every war, so that we may remind ourselves of the lessons to be learned from each conflict.
For those inclined to decorate their Volvos with "War Is Never the Answer" bumperstickers, a reminder: it is because of men far more worthy than you, buried in cemeteries from Normandy to Arlington, that you enjoy the right to be pathetic, ignorant cowards. Had your philosophy prevailed, the Confederacy would still exist (as would slavery); and Hitler's Reich would be celebrating it's seventy-third anniversary in a Jew-free empire.
I salute the fallen, and the men who answered the call, including my father,
Petty Officer Second Class Gerald Lief, who served at sea in the Korean War; his father,
Cpl. Harry Wiener Lief, Troop E, 3rd Cavalry, USA, who went to France and fought in the War to End All Wars; and my uncle,
Sgt. Bernard Solomon, USMC, who fought at the Frozen Chosin and never forgot his pals who didn't come home. Semper Fi, Mac!
Posted by Mike Lief at November 11, 2006 10:02 AM
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