A Warrior Evolves

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” Matthew 7:6

What do you call a man who first served his country for 37 years in the military, with two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star with a Combat "V," and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry; and then further served his country for 31 additional years in Congress?

If you're a Republican swine whose closest encounter with war is trying to prevent your local TV station from airing "Saving Private Ryan," then you call John Murtha a coward. But this may be John Murtha's bravest moment. The old soldier has come full circle. The idealism and arrogance of youth has given way to the wisdom and clarity of age and experience. The realization that the deaths of 2000 young American soldiers, and the deaths of tens of thousand of Iraqi civilians, are just so much collateral damage to the men in power, the real cowards, who roll relentessly over anyone and anything in their path, amassing wealth and power, not even bothering to wash the blood from their hands.

John Murtha looks into the eyes of wounded soldiers today and finally sees his dying buddies in Viet Nam. He's come full circle and cannot sit by quietly while another generation is damaged and discarded. I only hope that the swine who turned on Representative Murtha and tried to tear him and his pearls of wisdom to pieces will recognize the evil in themselves and jump headlong over a cliff, just like it says in the good book.