We went to see Les Miserables again today; our fifth time, I think. It’s such a great story and play. Every time I see it, it gets me to thinking about so many things—love, sacrifice, and patriotism most of all. I guess those are three very closely related abstracts. Today I found myself thinking historically. It’s a natural connection to a historically-based drama. The various iterations of the French Revolution were directly connected to the American Revolution. Most revolutions around the world since 1776 have had that connection, at least those in which the populace has risen up to demand liberty, equality, fraternity.
Drawing that line brought me to current events, of course, especially what’s happening in Libya. The successful events in Egypt spilled over across northern Africa, but the history of the United States with the country now known as Libya is long and violent. As the “Marine Hymn” denotes, “the shores of Tripoli” were the first beaches stormed in the history of the Corps. The Barbary Pirates were the problem then. The new United States Navy and Marines were called on to clean up the seas and help make it safe to travel and ship goods; in 1805 our country was only a few years old, but we were already demanding the world be a better place.
Not everyone wanted us there then. Some of the countries that stood and watched wondered where this upstart nation found the wherewithal, the brass…to take matters into its own hands. Some thought we were sticking our nose in where it didn’t belong and that we had no right to throw the bastards out.
Interesting, isn’t it? Think about how many times we’ve done the same thing in the 206 years since then…. I’ll give you a minute to Google that.
Those who do think about the many times we’ve stepped in usually have no trouble getting into a variety of arguments about the reasons. We’ve driven out pirates, solidified our borders, pulled things together in two world wars, went to Korea (not for the kimchi), went to Viet Nam to stop the dominoes of Communist aggression (really?), listened to Van Halen in Panama, vacationed in Grenada, capped an oil well in Iraq, did some mountaineering in Afghanistan. OK. I shouldn’t joke about that.
Why do we make these trips? We really aren’t sending our young men and women on vacation in exotic places. Tens of thousands of our best don’t come home. Tyrants still pop up all over the place. Communism “fell” all by itself. We still need oil.
Look out there, though, beyond the barricades. They’re still there, you know…the barricades. People are still piling carts and paving stones and their bodies in the streets to stop the armies of the dictators. And they’re still looking this direction for help.
They’ve read about 1776. They’re reminded every four years that change is possible without bloodshed. They read in our newspapers and now on the Internet that we agree to disagree and defend the right to speak of those who spew the most outrageous slogans, even those who maliciously slander the soldiers who protect them.
We keep sending our soldiers into the thick of it whenever any people need our help. Sure, too many times we get a worldwide black eye from the ones we want to help. It costs billions of dollars that we could use here at home. It costs thousands of lives. And sometimes it doesn’t seem to change anything.
But we can’t afford to stop trying. When we turn our backs on those who need our help, whether it’s to fight against slimeballs like Mommar Khadaffi (hey, you try to spell it!) or to clean up after a tsunami…when we turn out backs, the bastards win. And we lose. Not fighting is losing.
We have to keep disagreeing with one another. We have to keep demanding the best from ourselves and refuse to settle for anything less.
We have to pledge allegiance to that damned bloody flag because when it stops flying, the world starts dying.
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