Whenever I think about the war two quotes keep running through my head. One, appropriately enough is from Three Kings:
“Move in fast, leave the safeties on. Hit them with the blinding power of American sunshine.”
Isn’t that just about what we’re trying to do. Move quickly, don’t shoot unless you have to and bring them food, water and freedom. Not necessarily in that order.
The second quote – from Rough Riders – kept playing over and over in my mind during the first heady days of the lightning advance into Iraq:
“We are finding them, we are killing them, we are advancing!”
I think those two quotes taken together sum up perfectly the often confused and confusing nature of this war. We are moving quickly, we are killing without remorse when needed but more often we’re relying on our sunshine to clear out the dark recesses of tyranny and breathe new life into a long-suffering society. And how about that spectacular rescue last night? A combined arms operation, breaks into an Iraqi base disguised as a hospital, grabs one of our own and evacs her all without losing a man. Now that’s just damned impressive and should go down through the ages as one of the great accomplishments of POW rescues. Unfortunately, nobody remembers those acts of heroism, they’re just not glamourous enough.
So, keep going fellas, keep killing some, keep saving others and then keep on bringing the “blinding power of American sunshine” to the darkest corner of the Earth.