"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Doing Good in Afghanistan

UPDATE:

Here's a great first-hand report on the situation in Afghanistan from Captain Pete Hegseth, Princeton '03.

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America tends to understand our military's role in Iraq and Afghanistan through the prism of politics.   Is this development good for Bush or bad for Bush, good for Obama or bad for Obama?   We forget that there are young men and women (mostly young men) doing hard things in difficult circumstances in those countries, all the while trying to represent our country in the best way.   We need to pay a lot less attention to how those wars affect Presidential races, and much more attention to the heroes in our armed services, both those who get medals for valor in combat, and those who just do the daily hard work of making those countries a better, safer, more civilized place to live.

Anyway, here's a picture from Afghanistan of my nephew, a sergeant with the 101st Airborne (note the Screaming Eagle patch), handing out toys to Afghani children.   Lest we forget.



We're so proud of him.

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