2001 Dead Heroes - and here is what for...

Listening to President Bush yesterday, in what I consider to have been an extremely powerful speech (even for him), I reflected on what this war means and why we need to continue fighting it. And given the "benchmark" of 2001 dead American heroes today, who have fallen in the struggle of our century against terrorism, and the resounding success of Iraq's Constitutional election (79% approval), I labored to find an image that embodies why it is we need to continue doing (what I call) "the hard thing" - a concept I borrow from the great John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Of course, we've seen images of 9-11, and Iraqi people with dye on their fingers splashed everywhere in the media and throughout internet, but WHAT IS IT!? WHAT makes us DIFFERENT from this enemy? And why do we need to continue to fight, and kill or capture, these murderous and soulless thugs who are hijacking and perverting a major world religion?

These photos illustrate, like no words can, the vast UNIVERSE that lies between our two ideologies. Call it what you want, Good vs Evil...Them vs Us...Hatred Vs Hope...Islamic Anarchy vs Western Democracy...Destroyers vs Builders...East vs West...Old World vs New World? The list is endless, and not all analogies are absurd.

But how do these images, and all that they (collectively and separately) represent, make you FEEL!? How does it make disingenuous Celebrities, Radical Left-Wing Politicians and Self-Deluded Activists FEEL? For me, these photos TEAR MY HEART OUT - not just for young Nick Berg, who's horrific last moments on Earth I can't begin to imagine. And not just for this little Iraqi Girl, who now has a real future and a shot at equality and true freedom. Though not explicit here, this imagery conjurs (for me) our fallen heroes and our victims of terror on 9-11 and so many others on so many dates. It hits me hard, simultaneously, in two secret but vulnerable places, and the wildly unnatural juxtapositioning of these two images together somehow brings it all crashing home. THIS is why we are doing it. You need look no further.

As President Bush said yesterday "We didn't ask for this war." I say, like our grandparents in the so-called "greatest generation," let's rise to this challenge...and let's finish it. If not for ourselves, then for our kids.