Jules Crittenden, a journalist who was embedded with the troops in Iraq, has a deeply felt editorial in the Boston Herald: "Psalm 9-11: Fear No Evil":
Lullabies combat false monsters. Real monsters require something different.
Psalms, like lullabies, give comfort. But they don’t mask or deny the threat. They embrace it, and show the way to strength and ultimately comfort from within. What might a psalm say to anyone whose 9/11 fears have been reawakened?
Strong, ruthless men and women go long hours without sleep for you. They do everything they can to keep you safe. They are your shield. They will kill for you, and die for you. You can take comfort from that knowledge and draw strength from their example.
But that is not enough. There is something you have to find within yourself. It may be that one day, our shield will fail, and the insidious foe that operates from beyond our borders and even within them will penetrate that shield and kill some of us again.
You must decide for yourself that you will not let them deter you from your path. If they rise against you, you must be prepared to meet them. Prepared to be ruthless in defense of what you love. It may mean that you will die. We all do someday. As a friend of mine who knew what he was talking about once said, it’s not a matter of whether we will die, but how we will die. And when the time comes, the best we can hope for in this life, the one thing we might be able to control, is that we die well.
After discussing some brave souls on 9/11, Crittenden closes:
We honor them by endeavoring to live up to their example. It begins by repeating to ourselves the words from which others have drawn comfort in time of war and peril for more than 2,500 years.
I will fear no evil.
To see how these more intense passages fit into the larger essay (Crittenden begins by pointing out that the chances of being killed by a terrorist are extremely small compared to other risks), you would have to read the whole thing.
For background on Crittenden, see this post at Powerline.
I am especially disgusted by our leaders who hide behind the personal sacrifices and hardships endured by our uniformed people overseas. It is even more galling when those in power impugn those critical of their immoral and abusive policies overseas. It only adds to the insult when they fail to speak up when those in uniform serving their country come back without jobs and inadequate services to take care of all the physical and emotional damage done to them during their sacrifice. This kind of behavior is shameful!
Sounds like evil to me. Why are countless millions being spent to 'educate believers' on the text of the Qu'ran? A new era may be dawning, and we just might need the strength that is discussed in Crittenden's essay.
And your point is???????
‘In short, permission to have intercourse with a slave woman was not something barbaric or uncivilised (sic); on the contrary, it was almost as good as a marriage ceremony.’
Excerpt of answer to question #14421 (‘What is slave girls in islam?’), at www.Ask-Imam.com, as posed by a lady from the United States.
Crittenden did just that, if you had read the essay.
And your snide Halliburton remark was taken apart by Dick Thompson.
That's 2 strikes.
Jim Lindgren
You're not defending the troops, you're defending your own fantasies. And the troops keep dying.