The Face of Gallantry

IN a recent “Diary” for National Review Online, I told the terrible story of Mithal al-Alusi, a gallant Iraqi politician and democrat whose two sons and bodyguard were gunned down in Baghdad on February 8. I invited NRO readers to send messages of condolence for Mithal, which I would forward to him in Baghdad. Within 48 hours, I had received almost 200 letters, many of them from the parents, relatives, and friends of active-duty U.S. soldiers and Marines.

The letter-writers were inspired by the gallantry of Mithal’s response to his terrible loss. He told Radio Free Iraq that my children, three people [in all]-one of my bodyguards and two of my children-died as heroes, no differently from other people who find their heroic deaths. But we will not, by God, hand Iraq over to murderers and terrorists.

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David Frum

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IN a recent “Diary” for National Review Online, I told the terrible story of Mithal al-Alusi, a gallant Iraqi politician and democrat whose two sons and bodyguard were gunned down in Baghdad on February 8. I invited NRO readers to send messages of condolence for Mithal, which I would forward to him in Baghdad. Within 48 hours, I had received almost 200 letters, many of them from the parents, relatives, and friends of active-duty U.S. soldiers and Marines.

The letter-writers were inspired by the gallantry of Mithal’s response to his terrible loss. He told Radio Free Iraq that my children, three people [in all]-one of my bodyguards and two of my children-died as heroes, no differently from other people who find their heroic deaths. But we will not, by God, hand Iraq over to murderers and terrorists.