OUR VIEW: Memorials needed, indeed

May 26, 2008 12:21 am

— A military life is as difficult as it is valiant, and on the day we set aside to recall those sacrifices, we’d like to take a moment to examine what really makes this nation’s grand democratic experiment tick.
At the onset, it was a band of rebels — those who dismissed the conventional logic that oppression was easier than fighting for a principle.
Later on, it was a leader whose moral fortitude required he make good on the promise that all men are created equal.
It was a great generation thereafter who secured liberty for the world, staring down tyranny and genocide to fight a war only they had the power to win.
And now, in a world where terror lurks around every corner — and where abuse of power at home challenges particularly the belief in country — those who have always kept the flame of freedom aglow are again showing us the way.
There are many things to say about the war in Iraq. But the one thing this nation has always counted on remains strong — the selfless dedication of those men and women charged with executing the mission at hand.
It’s too easy in the midst of a political climate that questions a war growing more imprudent by the day to blame those doing the job. While our political leadership has failed again and again, our popular discourse has not.
We’ve learned from the error of a prior generation, which let anger at politicians turn into thoughtless hatred of those slogging in the mud of a far-away land. We’ve grown as a country in at least one, not insignificant way: We can honor those doing the job while criticizing the mission they’re given.
We do that now.
Today we must wipe clean the political slate that enacts artificial divides of peace versus war and strength versus cowardice.
Yes, those who have served in the military of the United States of America have a unique claim. More than any in the course of human history, Americans who have donned a military uniform can say they have made this world a better place. No army can claim a higher moral ground. None can reflect on more important battles won. And none can say they’ve delivered or sacrificed more in service of a just and peaceful existence for all mankind.
That alone is worth memorializing on this, Memorial Day.