While Memorial Day is a day to honor American fallen soldiers, I want to extend the holiday to all soldiers fighting the good fight alongside America.
I mourn the loss of soldiers in Australia, Poland, England, and every other nation that believes that liberty, freedom, and democracy make for a more peaceful world.
One nation that has always stayed loyal to America is Israel. They know the pain of war and fallen soldiers. It is in that vein that on this Memorial Day, that I think of one particular soldier that is thankfully alive and well.
I had the honor recently of meeting a British individual that served in the Israeli army. His name is Benjamin, and he is a hero.
His website, currently under construction, is “Our Soldiers Speak.”
Benjamin spoke at a program known as the Manhattan Jewish Experience, or MJE for short.
What he brought us was a presentation on the life of an Israeli soldier from an unfiltered point of view. He is not a politician or a member of the media.
In the same way that the Vets For Freedom spread the word about the battles that America faces, Benjamin offers an assessment of what Israel faces.
His presentation was given on a Friday night, the Jewish Sabbath. As is customary on the Sabbath, taking notes was not permitted. While his entire presentation was brilliantly expressed, the main point that he emphasized was that we as private citizens and lovers of Israel must hold the line.
Holding the line for a soldier means standing and being prepared to fight. Yet a commander does not order his troops to hold the line when everything is going well. It is at the very toughest moments, when weaker soldiers are tempted to turn away and retreat, that standing tall is vital. Holding the line means staring death in the face and accomplishing the mission.
Our soldiers do all the heavy lifting, and all they ask for is our support. Platitudes such as, “I support the troops” are insufficient. So are yellow ribbons.
We must do more. We must shake their hands, thank them, donate money, send care packages, and help them reintegrate back into civilian life when their mission is done.
Benjamin asked the people in the MJE Synagogue to hold the line. Hold the line against anti-Israel propaganda. Hold the line against anti-soldier lies. We must hold the line against the enemies of freedom and liberty by supporting our soldiers.
When newspapers with an ideological anti-military ax to grind print defamatory stories about soldiers, we must hold the line.
When our soldiers are made out to be barbaric killing machines, we must show their very human side.
No sane person likes war. War is hell. Yet when it is necessary, we as civilians cannot be the ones that squander the victory. We won Vietnam on the battlefield, but lost in the media. The same almost happened in Iraq.
America and Israel are locked in a life and death struggle for the right of free people to exist.
Soldiers like Benjamin will always do their part, with honor and without complaint.
We must do our part.
We freedom loving civilians must zealously protect their hard won gains.
On this Memorial Day, I wish peace for the families of all fallen soldiers.
I pray that we remain resolute.
We must hold the line.
eric
I think it’s more than a little disingenuous for a member of the RJC to present VFF as as group that “spread(s) the word about the battles that America faces…,” unless by “spread the word” you mean lobby, campaign and progagandize for the RNC. VFF is a politcal organization, not an educational foundation.
I also think it’s a tad bit of a stretch to say that “One nation that has always stayed loyal to America is Israel.” Israel and America have often diverged, and both are notorious for spying on one another. Israel is a close friend and ally, yes, but they’ve not always been very loyal – which is fine, as they are a sovereign state with their own national interests which are naturally not always in line with ours.
I’m not sure (as usual) what you mean by “supporting our soldiers.” If by that you mean we should simply sit back and let the military do whatever it wants, or let our civilian government officials do whatever they want of it, that would be blasphemous to our republican (small “r”) ideals. If by that you mean we should all always agree with and support every mission they’re obliged to engage, that would also be about as anti-American as you can get. If you mean we should make sure they have our moral and monetary support as human beings, that’s something we already almost all agree on. I’m not sure what we should be “holding the line” against – other than short-changing the VA, military combat and support supplies, and such. Holding the line against differing opinion is fine, as long as you don’t take it too far – becauise then you’d be espousing something very malevolent.
JMJ
Of course Eric is right, but we do have to ask ourselves two questions,
why are we still in Iraq (what are we fighting for?), and why are we
beefing up our forces in Afghanistan?
Iraqi Sunnis are already looking ahead when our forces leave, to
retake Bagdad AND the rest of the country, thanks to an impotent
gov’t. In Afghanistan, like the Russian before US, can we really expect
to be victorious over their own people?
No. Korea exploded another bomb and Iran is close to it’s first.
Our priorities have to change..back, from counter-insurgency to
simple, plain old mano to mano warfare.
To take out No. Korea’s and Iran’s nuke capabilities..we will have
to bomb them back to the stone age, from the air. That means
B1s, B2s Cruise Missiles, etc..no boy scouts here.
We can’t bomb North Korea, Dan. In the end, China is going to have to deal with that mess. After all, it is largely a problem of their own making. But China is not going to tolerate that level of intervention on our part. It could spark a war that we may well not be able to win, no matter what we do or how we do it.
Iran is another matter. A nuclear Iran may well be an inevitable future. Israel will not tolerate that. We could tolerate it, but for Israel. Unlike Pakistan (the one real threat the genius right never estimates), Iran is quite stable and sane, regardless of some of the loony rhetoric from some of it’s pols. Pakistan, in the hands of a Taliban junta, could be the most dangerous threat to us, India, China, Russia, Israel – you name it, in the world. To bad Bush went for the wrong “threat.” Had we put those resources into Afghanistan, we might not have this real problem today. Iran, however, politically stirs the Middle East pot more than Pakistan, as so takes more of our attention. I would think it best to let israel handle Iran – as much for their sake as ours… for two words for us: Plausible Deniability.
JMJ