We Just Hit 3,000

With the death of a Texas soldier announced this afternoon by the Pentagon, the U.S. has now lost 3,000 troops in Iraq. The drumbeat goes on. We hit 1,000 in September 2004; we hit 2,000 in October 2005. Having number 3,000 come in December 2006 confirms an almost imperceptible decline in the death rate for U.S. troops over the last three and a half years. We’re making no progress toward Iraq becoming a safer place for anyone. But that isn’t news anymore.

Meanwhile, we wait for the “new way forward” to be announced by the White House. I hope that the way before us is both new and forward moving. I’m tired of staying the same old course that has become little more than “drifting sideways”, as Senator John Warner described it, a drifting that has come at the expense of thousands upon thousands of American and Iraqi lives and billions upon billions of dollars.

After today’s announcement, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said that the president "will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain." I hate that phrase. I detest anyone even suggesting that the honorable death of an American service member in combat could ever be in vain.

These 3,000 men and women don’t need anyone in the White House, the Pentagon, the Congress, the courts, the think tanks, the media, the talk shows, the editorial pages, or the blogosphere to define when, or to decide whether, their sacrifice is or not in vain. Nothing done by the president or anyone else in the past, present or future will add to or detract from the efficacy of their sacrifice.

First and foremost, any true, freely offered sacrifice stands on its own merits by virtue of the fact that it is a true and freely offered sacrifice. Such a sacrifice is not divested of its honor and its valor simply because it does not produce some preferred or predetermined result. Sacrifice is an act that is independent of its result. To conclude otherwise would require us to declare that every person in civilian law enforcement who has died in the line of duty has died in vain because we still have crime in the streets. It’s preposterous.

Second, fulfilling one’s duty to country with honor, courage and commitment absolutely ensures that no such service can ever be said to in vain. How dare anyone even so much as suggest otherwise. It is vanity for anyone to do so, as if the labels “in vain” and “not in vain” are theirs to confer.

We should never tie the value of a person’s faithful performance of their military duty to someone else’s political definition of a victory. Any service member who meets the standard set by the United States Marine Corps motto – Semper Fidelis – Always Faithful – can never have the words “in vain” uttered in connection with their life, their service or their death.

So, Mr. Stanzel, please tell the president, with all due respect, that these brave 3,000 men and women don’t need him to do anything to ensure that their sacrifice will not be in vain. Their sacrifice and those additional sacrifices that are sure to follow in 2007 and beyond are above and beyond anything that he can do. God bless them, one and all.