This American soldier is cradling in his arms a dying child. An innocent child. Probably no more than five or six years old. He is a victim of those whose only true faith is the faith of death. Their faith is islam. The "religion of peace".

This was the horrifying aftermath of a terrorist bombing attack on a U.S. military patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul — but the victim, this time, was a little innocent child.

...the moving photo shows a gallant U.S. soldier, clearly distraught, cradling the dying child in his arms.
-New York Post / - Niles Lathem

This American soldier, doing his duty in a faraway land, brings forth the full throat of compassion in his deeds on behalf of this little child. He is bestowing the fullest measure of human kindness. A final act of tenderness. Perhaps the only true act of kindness this child has ever experienced in their brief life.

America and her gallant soldiers are often derisively referred to as warmongers. I would refer them again, to the words of General Douglas MacArthur.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The intellectually annointed will patiently, as if talking to little children, attempt to tell us that "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter." How soothing those words must sound to someone comfortably ensconced in their university office.

In yesterday's Financial Times, Michael Lind, in his piece, The Legal Debate is Over: terrorism is a war crime, [registration required] eloquently and ably pointed out, "It is no longer acceptable to sneer that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter." United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan: "In addition to actions already proscribed by existing conventions, any action constitutes terrorism if it is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organisation to do or abstain from doing any act." A clear definition of terrorism. This certainly describes the actions of the terrorists in Iraq and those Palestinians bent on destroying Israel. As Michael Lind further points out; "Terrorism against civilians, according to the UN Secretary General, is illegitimate as a tactic, always and everywhere. Terrorism is a crime, even when committed on behalf of a just cause." In closing Mr. Lind states; "Terrorism against civilians, whether committed by stateless groups or states, should be treated unambiguously as a war crime by every country in the world.", "The struggle of the law-abiding states of the world against terrorism continues. But the debate about its definition and legitimacy is over."

The terrorists in Iraq, and of course notably, in Israel, seem to have precious little compunction in regards to who they kill in the pursuit of their murderous ideology. It is long past time to call a spade a spade. The terrorists, wherever they are, must be given no quarter and we must show no mercy in pursuing them.

This brings me back to the above photograph. The psychotic fanatics who perpetrate such heinous acts, followers of islam they be, often speak of honor. Apparently they refer to the honor that accrues them for murdering the innocent. How rich that is and how sadly deluded they are. Evidence of their pathetic delusions can be found in a recent statement by one of evil's henchmen.

The deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmoud Al-Sayyid Ahmad Al-Habib, said on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV (April 2004); "The truth is that the resistance, whether in Iraq or in Palestine...defends the nation's honor...Therefore, the issue...martyrdom (i.e., suicide) operations carried out by boys and girls, and also the operations carried out by the Iraqi resistance - these redeem self-confidence and hope, because a nation that does not excel at the industry of death does not deserve life."

It is difficult to understand how madmen such as this can be considered one with whom we may treat. Apparently, he views images such as the above as depicting; "defending the nation's honor." It is profoundly distrubing that there are those who place individuals such as this on an equal plane with the civilized people and governments of the world.

General Douglas MacArthur once again on the American soldier.

But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage.

The American soldier does indeed, drink deep from the chalice of courage.

The terrorist, on the other hand, drinks deep from the tin cup of cowardice. His very existence a scurrilous blight on humankind. A pox to be eradicated.

The American soldier, as manifestly evidenced by the above, does America proud. We as a grateful nation are not only proud of our military prowess in achieving swift and certain victory on distant battlefields but also notably in how often our brave soldiers have placed themselves in harm's way in the service and defense of the oppressed.In fact the motto of the United States Special Forces is; 'De oppresso libere' - 'To liberate the oppressed.'

Once again, the words of General MacArthur ring faithful and true.

Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral law and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promoted for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training: sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he disposes those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in His own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the divine help which alone can sustain him. However hard the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.

Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth. And twenty years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth of dirty foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts, those broiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms, the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation of those they loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropical disease, the horror of stricken areas of war.

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.

The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country.

Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice. Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government: whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as they should be; these great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.

The American soldier.

Duty, Honor, Country.