There’s the big stuff, and then there’s the local stuff. Sometimes the
local stuff is much more of a pleasure to read than the big stuff.
My local newspaper, the excellent SUFFOLK LIFE,
has a story about a local serviceman just returned from a 1-yr tour of duty
in Iraq. Lt. Matt Shifrin has been serving with the U.S. Military Police
Corps. Here is what he says:
“There are evil people in the world that need to be killed. As harsh and
cold as this may sound, it is the truth none the less. You cannot fight
them in a court of law because they fail to recognize any higher secular
authority. Unfortunately, you can only fight them on the battlefield, where
judgments are quick and sentencing is instantaneous. That is how you defeat
terrorism. … I don’t know if we were fighting terrorism directly by
invading Iraq and ousting Saddam, but I do know that as long as these
extremist groups are planning and expending resources by attacking soldiers
in Iraq, they are less capable of attacking helpless civilians in the U.S.,
Israel, and other civilized nations. … I am … a proud American who has
done his part in preserving our way of life for future generations.”
To my way of thinking, these plain sentences are worth a whole year of New
York Times editorials or any number of speeches at the U.N. God bless Lt.
Shifrin. Oh, and… THANK YOU!