Decision ‘08

A Real Hero

I don’t have much patience for ‘chickenhawk’ arguments - it is absurd on the face of it to say that only those who serve in the military can have an opinion on military matters. I don’t need to shoot heroin to know it’s probably not a good idea. One small kernel of truth in the chickenhawk argument, though, is that it doesn’t take any kind of guts at all to bang your opinion out on the keyboard like yours truly. Pundits are not heroes, on either side of the aisle.

Today, however, the real deal, Lt. Michael Murphy, was honored with a posthumous Medal of Honor, the first to a Navy SEAL since Vietnam. From the President’s remarks:

…While conducting surveillance on a mountain ridge in Afghanistan, he and three fellow SEALs were surrounded by a much larger enemy force. Their only escape was down the side of a mountain — and the SEALs launched a valiant counterattack while cascading from cliff to cliff. But as the enemy closed in, Michael recognized that the survival of his men depended on calling back to the base for reinforcements. With complete disregard for his own life, he moved into a clearing where his phone would get reception. He made the call, and Michael then fell under heavy fire. Yet his grace and upbringing never deserted him. Though severely wounded, he said “thank you” before hanging up, and returned to the fight — before losing his life.

Unfortunately, the helicopter carrying the reinforcements never reached the scene. It crashed after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. And in the end, more Americans died in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005 than on any other day since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. This day of tragedy also has the sad distinction of being the deadliest for Navy Special Warfare forces since World War II.

One of Michael’s fellow SEALs did make it off the mountain ridge — he was one of Michael’s closest friends. Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell of Texas, author of a riveting book called “Lone Survivor,” put it this way: “Mikey was the best officer I ever knew, an iron-souled warrior of colossal and almost unbelievable courage in the face of the enemy.”

For his courage, we award Lieutenant Michael Murphy the first Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan. And with this medal, we acknowledge a debt that will not diminish with time — and can never be repaid.

If anything, the President downplayed his heroism. From the NY Times:

In June 2005, Lt. Michael P. Murphy and three fellow members of the Navy Seals were on a mission in the mountains of Afghanistan when they were pinned down by a swarm of enemy fighters. Trapped in a steep ravine, they were unable to get a radio signal to call for help.

With the Americans suffering injuries, ammunition running low and roughly 100 Taliban fighters closing in, Lieutenant Murphy made a bold but fateful decision: He left the sheltering mountain rocks into an open area where he hoped to get a radio frequency.

He managed to make contact with Bagram Air Base, calling in his unit’s location and the size of the enemy force, even as he came under direct fire, according to a declassified Navy account of the battle.

He also was shot several times and died.

Too often the real heroes of this world remain faceless, while we drink deep from the intoxicating fumes of celebrity culture. Not today, let us say, as we remember one of the fallen…

5 Responses to “A Real Hero”

1 Andy Says:
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:37 am
Amen!!!
2 Ryan Bonneville Says:
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:51 am
Well, I promised myself I would stop coming here, but I guess I can’t stay away. The point of the chickenhawk argument isn’t that only military people should be allowed to comment - most of the people who level it were never in the military in the first place. The point is that it’s unacceptable to pretend that you yourself are brave or tough because you can send other people to war. George Bush is not “tough on terror” because he isn’t personally doing anything tough. The soldiers of the US military are tough on terror (whatever that really means) - they’re the ones shooting and being shot at.

Too often the ability to advocate - or declare - war substitutes for actual courage. Giuliani and his lunatic foreign policy advisors aren’t tough because they want to drop nukes on Iran; they’re just lunatics. And dangerous ones. Calling Giuliani a chickenhawk, which he manifestly is, isn’t saying he should shut up; it’s saying that he shouldn’t swagger around pretending that rhetoric and the wanton discarding of other people’s lives makes him a strong leader.
3 Aaron Says:
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I guess policies count for nothing. By that standard, no president can be tough on terror unless he picks up an M-16, straps on his body armor and flies to Iraq. Eisenhower, Patton and Churchill weren’t tough on the Nazis because they weren’t actually doing anything to personally fight them. They were just throwing away the lives of young Americans and Britishmen while pretending to be strong leaders.

I guess the people who cry “chickenhawk” think we should go back to medieval warfare where the king would ride out on his white steed and do battle with his enemies personally. Maybe they think George Bush should have taken Saddam up on his challenge of a duel.
4 Jacques Distler Says:
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I guess policies count for nothing.

Of course they count for something.

Invading Iraq was one of, if not the biggest strategic blunder(s) in the history of this country.

“Chickenhawk” is , if anything, far too kind.
5 Mark Says:
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Time will tell, Jacques…the signs are very encouraging right now that maybe a bit of the turning of the tide is underway.

Nevertheless, I’ll grant you, as I said in another thread, that history will no doubt look harshly on the war because of the WMD fiasco. It was the major justification, and it was wrong. A blunder? Hell, yeah, and it pains me still.

Still, even if I grant you all of your arguments (just for the sake of making a point here), there can still be great sacrifice and heroism involved. My point in this post is that we can too easily get caught up in the politics and forget the real lives on the line…win or lose, blunder or no, as usual, our soldiers have, for the most part, done their jobs with honor and dignity and real bravery. We hear about the horrors of Abu Ghraib (and we should), but we too often don’t here stories like this one…