Best Ever

Despite the way they are presented by too many in the press and politics, the men and women in uniform today are overwhelmingly good. I’ve seen our troops willingly put themselves at great risk in order to keep from hurting a noncombatant, holding fire until they are sure their target is hostile, and placing themselves in danger to protect innocents during an enemy engagement.

Though I have been in more gunfights than I care to count, I never cease to be amazed at the self-discipline of these brave young Americans. They can endure the adrenaline pumping violence of an enemy engagement—and then, just minutes later, help school children get safely to their classes.

A columnist for the New York Times once wrote that our military men and women are “nothing but poor kids from Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas who couldn’t get a decent job or health insurance,” so they joined the military “because that’s all we offered them.” A U.S. senator likened those who serve in our armed forces to the armies of Hitler, Stalin, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot. Those opinions are just dead wrong. No nation—ours included—has ever had a military force better than the one we have today. I’m proud of them. You should be, too.

from the book American Heroes by Oliver North Copyright ©2008. All RIghts Reserved.
Published by B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee.