A letter to the future fallen...

Via commenter Ayatollah Ghilmeini on LGF:

To you 2000 and any that might fall after you:

I appreciate what your sacrifice means. I know that my way of life and everything I enjoy and take for granted, from power generated using imported oil safeguarded by American military power to the most generous system of laws the world has ever known right on to my personal safety in my home under the rule of law, is all possible because of a long green line called the American military.

I write to you as a man whom no army would have and who, by disposition, would make the worst of soldiers, discipline and respect for authority are simply alien concepts to me. But I am someone who has read hundreds of books of history and biographies and I know more than just something of military history. I know what I have and am grateful for it; I am grateful to you, because without you, my life would be incomparably worse.

I salute you 2000 as fallen liberators who did what all the experts said could not be done- you smashed an evil regime in less than forty days, the greatest generals of American history can all look upon you as the embodiment of the army that began at Lexington and Concord. I salute you for fighting a humane war. I salute you for doing something rare in military history, falling in the field of battle so an enemy civilian might not have to die. Not only is what you fought for more valuable than anything our enemies have to offer, you proved the worthlessness of our enemies' ideas by fighting nobly and with honor.

I salute you for fighting the toughest kind of war, a guerrilla combat, against a foe that hides among civilians. I salute you for proving every single "media expert" wrong, from the number of civilian casualties, to your ability to fight in cities without massive casualties and the fact that when the Iraqi people waved their purple fingers in the air, they validated everything you fight for and proved once again that you fight as liberators and not colonists.

I salute your injured comrades. I know that some have suffered wounds that will make them even less suited for combat than I am. After leading young and healthy lives, they will be reminded every day of what they sacrificed on the field of honor by their very day to day existence. I salute their families and loved ones who will have to deal with their suffering every day. I personally know of such suffering and would wish it on no one.

And I salute your fellow soldiers. I salute them for the having the same courage and honor as the dead and the injured. Far away from families and living in harsh conditions, many will carry the deaths and suffering of their comrades in arms as bitter memories and lifelong psychological wounds.

All I can give you is my support and these words. All I can do is tell America a simple truth: only winning this war can make such sacrifice worthwhile. Only marching out of Iraq as liberating victors hailed for delivering a nation to freedom and giving hope to all who endure tyranny on this earth can make any of this war worthwhile. Let the fear that you might march again cause dictators for 100 years to fear what you did to Saddam, his evil regime and their terrorist allies.

To the fallen, rest now. No one will ever honor me the way I will honor you; few will remember me but hundreds of years from now, you will be remembered and treasured as great. You have entered history and your deeds and courage are immortal.