Memorial Day: What We Owe Our Soldiers

Alex Epstein expresses very well what I've felt for a while. Our soldiers aren't sacrificial angels, they're our neighbors and friends. All too often we get bogged down in platitudes and forget that there is more to it than parades and ribbons. We owe it to our soldiers to make sure we send them to fight for the right reason, to protect America's freedom. And we owe it to them to give them the means and leeway to win.

Every Memorial Day, we pay tribute to the American men and women who have died in combat. With speeches and solemn ceremonies, we recognize their courage and valor. But one fact goes unacknowledged in our Memorial Day tributes: all too many of our soldiers have died unnecessarily--because they were sent to fight for a purpose other than America's freedom. {snip}

What we owe these men who fight so bravely for their and our freedom is to send them to war only when that freedom is truly threatened, and to make every effort to protect their lives during war--by providing them with the most advantageous weapons, training, strategy, and tactics possible. {snip}

In Afghanistan we refused to bomb many top leaders out of their hideouts for fear of civilian casualties; these men continue to kill American soldiers. In Iraq, our hamstrung soldiers are not allowed to smash a militarily puny insurgency--and instead must suffer an endless series of deaths by an undefeated enemy.

To send soldiers into war without a clear self-defense purpose, and without providing them every possible protection, is a betrayal of their valor and a violation of their rights.

I agree most with Alex about Iraq and Afghanistan. We made the right decision to drive out the evil regimes that were in power in those places. However, I've said from the beginning that we did not use the power we are capable of mustering. Our goal should be to win, and all else should be secondary. You haven't won a war until your enemy is hopelessly demoralized and utterly incapable of fighting back. America can wield that kind of force, but we have not, and that has been a disserve to our soldiers. We owe them more.