A Tale of Two Afghan Videos

It has been an interesting Independence Day weekend, to say the least. We had not heard from our son Justin, who is serving in the US Marines in Afghanistan, in about three weeks. Many other marine parents warned us to stay away from the daily news in order to retain our sanity. This is easy for me in that I get most of my news from the internet, since the nightly so-called news programs are merely a rehashing of the days talking points from Move On and the Daily Kos. Still, during especially rough times, I have other parents call and warn me to keep my wife away from the news for the next few days. I can only imagine the emotions of parents during the time when President Bush was in office, and the media always portrayed the war and the troops in the worst possible light. Now that the media’s messiah is the current commander in chief, they have sanitized the war news somewhat, but it can still be unsettling to watch.

This past week, the world witnessed the very graphic video of a British soldier under fire, bloodied with bullets splashing around him in the sand. Fortunately, he was not hurt seriously and returned to duty later that day. This video was a graphic reminder of the conditions under which our brave troops are serving.

The next day, our friend Starrla called to tell my wife that she saw our son Justin on CNN. Later, my brothers called to say that they had seen Justin in a Yahoo video that has since been taken down. We looked up the video, and sure enough, there he was. It was difficult to make a positive id since he was wearing all his gear, but he finally called and confirmed that he was in the five hour firefight, that he was safe, and that he had been on camera. So, while the first video brought worry, the second brought some comfort for the moment.

As we continue to celebrate on this Independence Day weekend, please remember to pray for all the friends and relatives back home. Above all, please continue to pray for our troops serving in harm’s way. While the liberal politicians are busy stripping away our freedoms and traditional values on which our country was founded, these brave men and women are putting their lives on the line daily to preserve them. May God bless our Troops.