Peace Like A River


It was a wide river, mistakable for a lake or even an ocean unless you'd been wading and knew its current. Somehow I'd crossed it... Now I saw the stream regrouped below, flowing on through what might've been vineyards, pastures, orhards... It flowed between and alongside the rivers of people; from here it was no more than a silver wire winding toward the city. - Leif Enger, Peace Like A River

Friday, September 30, 2005

A definition of peace

Peace is when there are no more bad days.

The last couple of days have been bad days. According to this Washington Post article, three car bombs in Iraq have killed dozens of Iraqi civilians.

Other news sources say more than 60 were killed, and dozens injured.

In addition, 5 Marines from the II MEF, 2nd Division were killed by a roadside bomb.

Ramadi has been a volatile area, and the military has not released a lot of information about what is currently going on in Ramadi. The Marines only said the 5 were killed during ongoing combat operations.

Another Marine was killed by small arms fire on the 27th.

These are the days that try our souls. We see vicious murderers kill civilians by the dozens, and we see good American soldiers lost because of these killers. Why do so many good soliders have to be lost to these terrorists?

And yet, we know the answer. We know evil never exhausts itself. Evil is always hungry, it always seeks to devour. That is why we honor those who volunteer to face it, those who are willing to put themselves in harm's way to vanquish this evil.

And so, we mourn our losses, but any day we can stop and appreciate and be eternally grateful for the dedication of our military, that is a good day.

2 Comments:

  • At Fri Sep 30, 11:27:00 AM, johngrif said…

    Hurl says it best at his 8/13/05 blog entry. He speaks for all true Americans.
    ----
    Three days ago our squadron had what looks like our busiest day since we've been deployed - about 5 months now. In 24 hours we launched on 20 missions, 11 of which were casevac missions. It was almost funny. We would return from a mission, get back to the ready room, pour a cup of coffee and sit down. Just at that point when you take that first sip, relax and sigh... the siren would go off indicating another scramble. So much for the coffee. Once again we would run out to our golf cart, drive to the aircraft, jump in, start, arm, and launch. It has become so routine I could do it in my sleep. A couple of times at 3am I think I have....

    One particular early morning mission - right at twilight - we went to a FOB in Ramadi to pick up an angel. He was a Marine that had been killed 2 days earlier in a firefight, but was unable to be evacuated. I will never forget this. We landed in the zone right next to the transport helicopter. Four Army medics gently unloaded him from the ambulance and carried his body onto the transport, then departed and walked back to their ambulance. They stood there neatly lined up, facing the helicopter. They came to attention and saluted the Marine as the transport lifted the zone. We also took off and silently escorted the Marine back to Taqaddum.

    Our last mission of that busy day we escorted two Marines to a Baghdad surgical hospital. One was heavily bandaged and on oxygen but conscious. As he was being carried off the transport, he turned his head and looked at me sitting in my Cobra. I just waved at him and said a prayer for his recovery....

    ....As we took off we flew by the building where the new Iraqi constitution was being drafted - right at that very moment. There could not be a more vivid and stark illustration that freedom always has a price - a price of pain, blood and life.

    --------http://camelspider.typepad.com/hurl/2005/08/index.html

     
  • At Fri Sep 30, 12:21:00 PM, Jeff said…

    Thanks, John. Solemn words.

    How God must shake His head sometimes at his creation, and our capacity for violence. On the other hand, there are those who are willing to stand up and be counted in the cause of freedom, and God has His hand on those.

     

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