September 21, 2007

  • R.I.P., Dear Bruin.

    I wish I had known him while in school. 
    And he writes better than half the English majors I've read.
    Our troops are, without question, the nation's best and brightest.

    From a Slain Bruin Soldier, Hero
    Why I Joined
    By Lt. Mark Daily

    "One thing is certain, as disagreeable or as confusing as my decision to enter the
    fray may be: consider what peace vigils against genocide have accomplished lately.
    Consider that there are nineteen year old soldiers from the Midwest—who have never
    stood in a college campus or a protest—who have done more to uphold the universal
    legitimacy of representative government and individual rights by placing themselves
    between Iraqi voting lines and homicidal religious fanatics. Often it is less about how
    clean your actions are and more about how pure your intentions are."

    " In digesting this, please remember that America’s commitment to overthrow Saddam
    Hussein and his sons existed before the current administration and would’ve existed
    in our future children’s lives had we not acted. Please remember that the problems that
    plague Iraq today were set in motion centuries ago and were up until now constrained
    by the cruelest of cages. Don’t forget human beings have a responsibility to one another
    and that Americans will always have a responsibility to the oppressed. Don’t overlook
    the obvious reasons to disagree with the war but don’t cheapen the moral aspects either.
    Assisting a formerly oppressed population in converting their torn society into a plural,
    democratic one is a dangerous and difficult business, especially when being attacked
    and sabotaged from literally every direction. So if you have anything to say to me at the
    end of this reading, let it at least include “Good Luck.”  "