Remember that clip of the Marine shooting the insurgent? The cameraman has a blog:
The Marines have built their proud reputation on fighting for freedoms like the one that allows me to do my job, a job that in some cases may appear to discredit them. But both the leaders and the grunts in the field like you understand that if you lower your standards, if you accept less, than less is what you’ll become.
There are people in our own country that would weaken your institution and our nation –by telling you it’s okay to betray our guiding principles by not making the tough decisions, by letting difficult circumstances turns us into victims or worse…villains.
I interviewed your Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Willy Buhl, before the battle for Falluja began. He said something very powerful at the time-something that now seems prophetic. It was this:
“We’re the good guys. We are Americans. We are fighting a gentleman’s war here — because we don’t behead people, we don’t come down to the same level of the people we’re combating. That’s a very difficult thing for a young 18-year-old Marine who’s been trained to locate, close with and destroy the enemy with fire and close combat. That’s a very difficult thing for a 42-year-old lieutenant colonel with 23 years experience in the service who was trained to do the same thing once upon a time, and who now has a thousand-plus men to lead, guide, coach, mentor — and ensure we remain the good guys and keep the moral high ground.”
I listened carefully when he said those words. I believed them.
So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera — the story of his death became my responsibility.
The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.
This is powerful stuff.
My alarm went off at 8:30 promptly, and I wobbled my way to the shower. I brushed my teeth, dressed, and was out the door a little before 9 o’clock. Got to Goodyear a tad late, and spent 45 minutes waiting for my car back. Turns out Ted thought I was just dropping it off, or he’d've had it ready sooner.
I got down to Jiffy Lube a little before 10, and was gone from there by 10:30. Hooray! I breezed through a haircut and then to Borders, getting a nice Rand McNally atlas for $10. Actually, I still had $4 or so on my gift-card from last year, so it wound up being $6. Even BETTER!
I made two attempts to get to Beltway Liquors off Joppa Road. The first time … well, it was just too crowded. I couldn’t even get into the parking lot. I swung by Record & Tape Traders and bought a copy of the Special Edition of Casablanca for $16. Someone had mismarked it (hooray!) but they honored the price. Most places have it for a cool $25/$30 bucks. After Record & Tape Traders, I hit Toys ‘R Us real quick and bought a couple of lego sets.
I tried Beltway Liquors for the second time and found a parking spot. Sadly, they didn’t have either Cider Jack, or the Fat Bastard wine I was going to bring as a Thanksgiving present. Eargh! Well, I only had one last stop to make - braving a supermarket in the days before Turkeyday. Waited for 20 minutes at the deli for ham and cheese, then spent about 10 in line waiting to check out.
Still, I got home a little after 1:30. I started some cleaning, and then felt tired so I curled up on the couch and took a nice - hour long! - catnap. Sort of ironic, because Guy (the older of my two cats) jumped on to the couch to play and I wound up holding him as I slept. He was not very happy about being held for an hour as I snored away.
When I woke up, I fired off an e-mail to Amazon asking, “WHERE THE HELL IS MY PACKAGE, BITCHES?” and now I’m off to … I don’t know. Some laundry, certainly, maybe fix dinner. I don’t cook (well, I do, if it’s Chef Boyardee), so I’ll have a ham and cheese sandwich. Toasted white bread with mayonaise, white american cheese, livingston farm smoked ham, and just a *dab* of jalapeano mustard. All this with a tall frosty glass of milk, and a side of cooler ranch doritos.
And Humphrey Bogart on the TV. “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
