Always Faithful

Imagine what life would be like if every American were “Always Faithful.” The term can be applied to every single facet of American life, both public and private. Few Americans understood the meaning of that phrase better than Marine Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, 19, both killed in action in Iraq.

The two Marines were guarding the main entrance to a joint American-Iraqi security compound in Ramadi, one of the hell holes in Iraq’s Anbar province, when they spotted a truck approaching from a distance. As it weaved in and out of the barriers, heading directly towards the gate loaded with a ton of explosives, two other guards – Iraqis – ran for cover as did other nearby Iraqi police.

Only the two U.S. Marines, Yale and Haerter, stood firm, firing their weapons at the Jihadist suicide driver bearing down with his hand on a dead-man switch. The truck exploded away from the gate, saving the lives of dozens of soldiers inside the compound.

Semper Fidelis – Always Faithful – even unto death. That’s the lived motto of the U.S. Marine Corps, and it was loyally carried out that day as two young American warriors protected not only their own, but other Iraqis inside the gate.

The two Iraqi police officers whose duty it also was to defend that gate obviously had not internalized the meaning of “Always Faithful.” It reminds me – and perhaps a few of you reading this: Why is it that the Iraqis themselves are so unwilling or incapable of straightening out their own affairs? And if they won’t, then why does America continue to shed its blood for this intolerant theocracy pretending to govern as a democracy?