Left I on the News

George Bush presented a Medal of Honor to the family of a dead Navy SEAL who died throwing himself on a grenade to save two others (interesting calculus, by the way; a certain death for one person vs. a possible death or certain injury for three). In presenting a tribute to the dead man, Bush described his repeated bravery:

Overall, Mike's platoon came under enemy attack during 75 percent of their missions. And in most of these engagements, Mike was out front defending his brothers.

And for once, Bush got it right. Petty Officer Michael Anthony Monsoor wasn't fighting to defend "us," or to defend "democracy," or even to win some mythical "war on terror." He, like virtually all members of the military, was "defending his brothers." Period.

Alas, Bush had to spoil it with a prediction which can never be fulfilled: "We will not let his life go in vain." Because Petty Officer Monsoor's life, like the lives of more than 4000 other members of the American military (note: I started to write "Americans," but some of them were most definitely not Americans, but foreign mercenaries fighting in American uniforms), hundreds of citizens of "allied" countries, and more than a million Iraqis, has already been lost "in vain," and nothing that happens in the future can change that. Actually some of those Iraqi lives will not have been lost in vain, because they were Iraqis who lost their lives trying to free their country from occupation. One day their efforts will be rewarded.