Today’s IBD front page tries to compare the flag raising at Iwo Jima with a group of soldiers fighting on the rooftops of Fallujah. As terrible as this undeclared war is, it doesn’t amount to a pimple on a bull’s ass next to the pervasive horror of World War II. And it is the essence of blasphemy to try to co-opt the incomparable heroism of the veterans of the World Wars.
It’s just this simple: Dan Rather, the most stoic of stoic news broadcasters, lost control of his voice in talking about the strength and valor of the face of a soldier in a photo. Rather was correct. I saw the photo and that soldier deserves the honor and praise of our entire nation as do all of our soldiers everywhere. But, do you think that soldier would have the constitution to look like that staring into the face of war without the example of the soldiers in the photo of the flag-raising? I don’t think so, but I really don’t know.
And neither do the editors of IBD. Damn their cowardly, narrow pettiness.