Thank You, Veterans

We set aside a special day to thank our military veterans, but we really should do it every day.

My heartfelt thanks to all veterans. Thank you for your service and the good things it has provided to people in the USA and all over the world.

Thomas Friedman on President's Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

In case you haven't seen it, you should check out New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's opinion piece on this subject. Friedman is no anti-Obama critic.

He calls on Obama to give an acceptance speech that includes this statement...

I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers who stand guard today at outposts in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan to give that country, and particularly its women and girls, a chance to live a decent life free from the Taliban's religious totalitarianism.

I will accept this award on behalf of the American men and women who are still on patrol today in Iraq, helping to protect Baghdad's fledgling government as it tries to organize the rarest of things in that country and that region — another free and fair election.

I will accept this award on behalf of the thousands of American soldiers who today help protect a free and Democratic South Korea from an unfree and Communist North Korea.

I will accept this award on behalf of all the American men and women soldiers who have gone on repeated humanitarian rescue missions after earthquakes and floods from the mountains of Pakistan to the coasts of Indonesia. I will accept this award on behalf of American soldiers who serve in the peacekeeping force in the Sinai desert that has kept relations between Egypt and Israel stable ever since the Camp David treaty was signed.

I will accept this award on behalf of all the American airmen and sailors today who keep the sea lanes open and free in the Pacific and Atlantic so world trade can flow unhindered between nations.

Please check out the entire piece. I think the speech Friedman proposes would send the right message to the rest of the world in response to those who bestowed the aware on Obama because they believe he will make the USA more like Europe.

The Importance of Memorial Day

I don’t care what you think about any particular war – it is extremely important for us to remember our fallen soldiers. Memorial Day doesn’t discriminate between reluctant soldiers who were drafted, and those who volunteered. It remembers those who are no longer with us, whenever they served.

There are those who blame our soldiers for war. If we didn’t have a military, there would be no war. That’s a little like saying that without coroners, police, and firefighters, there would be no death, crime, or fires, respectively.

If we didn’t have a military, our fate would be enslavement and destruction by those who hate human liberty.

Without our military, all of the arguments we have about religion, marriage, privacy, bioethics, gender roles, government spending, taxes, public schools, immigration, entertainment content, and environmental protection would be completely trivial because we wouldn’t be free to debate them, if we were even still alive. Rising gas prices would be the least of our troubles.

I remember the soldiers in my own family who have passed on, and I offer my sincerest grattitude to the families who have lost soldiers. I will not forget their sacrifice.