Awkward Utopia

Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, USN, is worth remembering. So are his deeds. He will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on Monday, October 22, 2007. He was a Navy SEAL, perhaps the most lethal type of human soldier to ever exist. Of course, the finest words ever spoken of the American soldier were those of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in his Duty, Honor, Country speech at Westpoint in 1962:

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. [...]

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now — as one of the world’s noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. [...]

He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. [...]

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training — sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him. However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

Although Lieutenant Murphy is not buried in Arlington National Cemetery, it is worth considering these thoughts as we pass by the graves there, or in Normandy. Millions have perished so that we might live in this last best hope for humanity, the United States of America. General MacArthur should have the last word, as he proclaims that soldiers are far from warmongers:

On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’