Rou

I read today an article about our troops in Iraq. For the most part is was a fairly masturbatory view of the war. The US is right. The troops are amazing. The strategy is sound. That sort of thing. Then he goes a little further.

He says that anyone who enlists in the military is automatically a hero.

See, that just pisses me off. It's just not true. And it detracts from those people that have actually done something heroic, in or out of uniform. I don't want to bash our troops. I'm proud of our troops and I think they are some of the best soldiers anywhere in the world. My attack here isn't on them, it's on a dumb ass author.

It's not heroic to enlist. It takes than committing four years to the military to become a hero. It takes more than serving in a combat zone.

I read a story today about a hero. 14 year old kid jumped off the station platform and onto the tracks after a man he didn't know fainted and fell down. He pulled the man back under the platform and out of the way of an on-coming train. He was in no personal danger, but he placed himself in harms way to protect another person. He displayed courage and strength of spirit to save a person he didn't know. That, sir, is a hero.

Soldiers in combat have many opportunities to become a hero. There are long lines of men in uniform that have gone above and beyond their duty to help their comrades in arms or to vanquish their foes. Men who have put their lives down to do what they knew what right. Maybe they carried wounded men out of harms way. Maybe they held their position longer than was safe because to fall back would mean death to their friends. That, sir, is what it takes to be a hero.

Being a hero is more than a simple platitude we throw down for anyone. It's means something. It's a choice made by a person that 'good enough' doesn't apply to them. That they accept the risk because the benefits are worth it. Or maybe they choose to do something dangerous because they just don't think they can live with themselves if they did nothing. Whatever the reason, they choose to do more.

This article cheapens that. It makes the very act of enlisting into a sacrifice. The act of going off to war into heroism of the finest sort.

But heroes do more than just put on a uniform. It takes more.