A Chapter Closes

Endings are the hardest.

Nothing really ends, not to the people involved. The war against terrorism goes on; the defense of America against outside threats continues. Free Iraqis must relearn what it is to have liberty and choice and, even after the formal combat draws to an end, the battle to keep order and preserve peace will continue to claim casualties. New duty rosters are assembled, new assignments given—farewells and separations, some temporary, some permanent, some killed on foreign soil. The wheel turns but there is no true end, not in the war between good and evil, not to those who live in the theatre.

For others, the starting flag has waved. Behind the artifice of climax, the jackals come. Like vultures to the battlefield, they descend to profit from a not yet dead corpse. The same nations who supported tyranny now seek to gain from its fall. Worse yet, the hyenas in sacrilegious vestments, waving the flag they yesterday would have burned, now slink to the fore. Like Anthony to dead Caesar, they sing their own praises as a eulogy for the dead. Renouncing their prior words as misunderstandings, overflowing with concerns, clutching the coattails of the men they seek to trip, now we see the hypocrites running to mingle with the righteous—the revisionists of history, these Pharisees, these Sadducees, these very bad Americans.

It is most painful when the people who should be on your side are not, more so when they are two-faced about it. There are people in this nation who will undermine everything we have done, all the progress made, while simultaneously denying their intent and trying to take credit for it. There are those who will slander and impugn the integrity of our troops and the legitimacy of our motives all the while declaring their pride and support of the same. They will slant facts, twist statements, and do everything in their power to rewrite events to their agendized likings.

Stay the course and be firm. No man may change what is. No amount of lies can alter the truth. Noble deeds, once done, cannot be undone. Let us stand strong in the knowledge of the immutable facts and let the whine of gnats and childish cries fall on deaf ears. The enemy has suffered a grievous blow and no betrayals by the cowards in our midst can change this.

There is a trend afoot to deny the existence of bad Americans. Not only is the idea vacuous; it is also hypocritical. The same people who protest the accusation that they are bad citizens are, in turn, quick to judge those who oppose their own ideals. They hide behind “freedom of speech” and demand that the voices that contradict them be silenced. Everyone wants to be considered a good American, a distinction impossible if there are none bad.

Good and bad are often defined by whether a thing remains consistent with its nature and/or the purpose for which it exists. Good which has rotted and become inedible is considered bad. A book which neither entertains, informs, nor inspires is a bad book. A road filled with holes and rough driving is a bad stretch of road. An American who does not support the ideology that this nation stands for and was founded upon is, quite simply, a bad American.

Are members of the Ba’ath party good Americans? Are the French good Americans? Are university professors, who wish for American failure and “a million Mogadishus” and give extra credit to students who protest our military good Americans? All espouse the same ideology and all speak from the same script. Ducks are ducks and bad Americans are bad Americans.

Contrary to the rhetoric, it is not patriotic to protest. Protesting for the sake of protesting is, at best, sophiclistic. Protesting from a position of total ignorance is fatuous. And protesting against what is right, protesting to support anti-Americanism and evil, is far from patriotic. It is the height of irresponsibility. It is the very definition of acting as a bad American.

The freedom to speak is also the freedom to remain silent when appropriate. It is not a right to be heard or respected. Freedom of speech is not freedom from repercussions as a result of that speech. It is incumbent upon all of us as citizens to hold people accountable for what they say and, at times, to great them with the overwhelming freedom of silence—at university, at the box office, at the merchant, and at the voting booth.

What to do then? How to leave a war which is not over and face a home front mined with seditionists? How can a man bury his compatriots and restrain his frustrated fury as people he fought to protect choose to wallow in ignorance and selfishness? As a hero. As a warrior. As an adult, grown wise upon the battlefield, deals with an overly-sheltered child. Head high, eyes front. It is eternally wearying to take the mature path but remain steadfast and remember. Remember what you have done and what you have learned. The pain and suffering is so often highlighted that it is easy to forget the value of war and the lessons it teaches.

You, who have set foot on foreign soil in service of your government, now know perspective—the plight of the world and the values of your homeland. You have learned of the strength of faith and the honor of service.

You, who have sent beloved into danger and who have left beloved behind in uncertainty, know the great value of family, the pride of duty in adversity, and the strength of love.

You, who have faced fear, have learned courage and the smallness of the mundane. The hold of fear is weak upon you now. You have faced it, learned it, and put it in its proper place.

You, who have faced death in battle, now truly know the value of life, so strong and so fragile. With battlefield clarity, you have had the shackles of materialism stripped away. You have learned priorities from the harshest of mistresses and return to us reinvigorated in the service of righteousness.

You, who have lost comrades in battle, and you, who have made the greatest sacrifice of all and lost family to war, to you are given the greatest gifts—small comfort in the service of a valorous cause. You have learned the brotherhood, not of all men, but of virtuous men; and their loss shall forevermore inspire your own lives to greater heights. You have learned the painful virtue of duty and nobility and earned the gratitude of all. You have become intimate with the cost of freedom and righteousness.

And you, who have freed a people by giving liberty have, in turn, learned most clearly the value of such a treasure and of joy. You have seen what other men have not, done what other men could not, become greater than others ever could. Among the jackals and the fools, among the hyenas and the sophicilists, you are lions. Among your peers and civilian supporters, you are heroes. Head held high and shoulders square; the day is yours, the nation safer, and a people made free—what a fine legacy, what a majestic contribution to the world.

“Thank you” seems too small.