Day 6 Essay Freedom isn't Free

The Human Cost of Freedom, Fallen Heros in the war against terror and despotism

Essay “ Freedom isn’t Free”


This is the most difficult of these essays to write, for the war in Afghanistan and Iraq is ongoing. We will be there for years to come. That is what the situation calls for, and we have answered the call as we have previously answered that call under nearly ever circumstance possible. Either overtly or covertly, our armed forces have gone before us and served with distinction in every theatre where we were called upon to serve. This has taken our young men and now women to every corner of the globe, to fight for the cause of liberty

For over 200 years the United States of America has been to the world a beacon of hope, “a Shining City on a Hill,” as former President Reagan liked to say, a place where people could come and be what God made them to be. A free people, a self directing people. It was a first in all of history that this type of society was to come into being, and then to flower. It is a vision that many nations or groups of people within nations would like to emulate, for with freedom brings that hope that springs eternal in every breast, that yearning to choose ones destiny.

With that freedom comes responsibility. The responsibility to vote, to obey the laws of the land, and to serve to protect the nation and the freedoms that we so enjoy. Sometimes we disagree with our government about how these things are decided and how they come about. That is the privilege that the armed forces of our country fight for the most vigorously, the right to dissent.

We need to remember that this right is not found in many countries in the world.
To publicly disagree with the government of many nations would get you thrown into prison or even killed. This is certainly true of the nations that are held under the sway of Islam. Like the brutal communist regimes that ruled much of Europe and north Asia for the last century, Islam and the radical religionaries that control the governments of the Middle East, will not allow any dissent, either of the politics or the religion that you must proscribe to at the risk of your life. Out of this morass came the murderers of September 11, and the mastermind of that attack, who hates us as a nation , as a system of government, and our freedom of faith.

There is much debate around the country to weather this war is “just”, or “right” or even “necessary”, I would not go into the politics of it all, but I will say this. There were 15 million Iraqis suffering under a brutal dictator, that was an exporter of Weapons of Mass Destruction, terrorism, (he paid bonuses to homicide bombers in Israel). Iraq’s evil regime murdered hundreds of thousands of people and threw them in mass graves. Maimed and tortured, gassed whole villages…I say to rid the world of that is a good thing. Would to God we could do that every where that it was needed.

I have met a number of dissenters, flag burners, anarchists, and those that see America as the root of all evil. I remind them that the very reason that they have the right to protest, the right to burn the flag, and to say what they say in public was bought with a price. The very blood of Americas finest. The solders that they decry as evil are the ones that laid down their lives for them, for their precious rights that they cling to. They forget the cost, the gift, and the giver, and hold their liberty way too cheaply.

I come from a family that has many generations of proud military service. I have stood at Gettysburg knowing that I had relatives on both sides that day. Those men believed in what they were fighting for. My father’s grandfather fought in the “Great War” in England, my Father in WWII, maternal uncles in the Korean conflict. My present husband served in combat zones in Vietnam, and though he never personally had to fire a weapon, his life was still at risk. My former husband served in the late 70’s perhaps the worst time in our history for a man to serve in our demeaned armed forces, but he did it. Two men that I dated in the early 90's were deployed to Kuwait. My brother volunteered and served his time in the USMC when terrorism was starting to become an issue. Three of his friends died in the bombing of the Marine Corp Barracks in 1983, a broken ankle stopped his deployment to Lebanon or today I would be writing this as a bereaved sister of a terror victim….

Our armed forces have served, have given of their number to more nations than any other military in history. Not for the cause of empire or conquest. Not for the cause of imperialism, but in the cause of liberty. We fight that others might have the right to live and be free as we are. Sometimes that has meant combat, other times it has meant to just be there, the line in the sand as it were. In every case, it has been the right thing to do. Even in such cases as Vietnam, where the methods were bad, but not the motives, nor the young men that did their duty by serving. The individual solder was valiant even if the management was corrupt.

I want the world to know that I have yet to meet a service man or woman that regretted their decision to serve even in war time. Even in the controversy surrounding the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, they still enlist, they still reenlist and I salute them for their courage in the face of adversity at home and abroad for they show us the true meaning of the word “Patriot”.

When I see pictures like the one below, I see the other patriots. In the Bible when King David was at war, he divided his army, one part to go to the fight and the other to “stay with the stuff.” And they received equal part of the spoil of victory. I would give equal parts gratitude to those that stay behind and tend the wounds of the injured and God forbid, lose a loved one in combat. They are also patriots, and worthy of the highest honor for they have given all for the nations weal. They will tell you that Freedom isn’t Free . The continuing sacrifices of such as these insure the future of our great nation and that it will continue to be the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!