Honoring American Valor

The front page of Tuesday’s The Star-Ledger displays the color photo of an Iraqi soldier monitoring traffic in one of his country’s major cities as a red car whizzes by. The soldier is outfitted and well-armed in modern battle gear, undoubtedly designed and paid for with U.S. dollars.

On that day, June 30, 2009, Iraqis were justifiably celebrating “National Sovereignty Day.” It commemorates a treaty negotiated by the former Bush administration marking the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq’s cities, and their repositioning in outlying bases.

In the accompanying AP news story, an Iraqi citizen, Waleed al-Bahadili, is quoted as saying that Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds “are happy” for the U.S. troop pullout. Mr. al-Bahadili is not fond of the U.S. He believes that “The Americans harmed and insulted us too much.”

In Washington, this major milestone event has come and gone with not a peep from the White House: tens of thousands of American soldiers wounded and maimed in Iraq; some psychologically impaired; over 4,000 killed. And still not a peep from the White House.

In contrast, on that same day, the Courier News ran an uplifting local story about how two Americans from Perth Amboy, both former wrestlers from Rutgers Prep, produced a music video to honor all of America’s military veterans.

There was no talk about Iraqis bad-mouthing Americans or American troops – just a tale of two proud American citizens imagining what it must be like to serve this country with honor.

Here’s some advice for Waleed: You may have your country. I hope you have the courage to defend it yourself.

As for we Americans, we have another birthday to commemorate – the founding of the greatest successful assemblage of the world’s castaways ever witnessed – the USA.

Forgive me if I boast about our country. No one that I know has every pretended it to be perfect, or that America doesn’t make mistakes, some serious. But I’ve grown annoyingly weary of serial public apologies originating from the White House criticizing the American character in front of make-believe allies, while retrospectively denigrating U.S. integrity.

It’s soon to be the 4th of July. Celebrate. Be proud.