The ability of Joe Carter (of Evangelical Outpost) to conceptualize and effectively communicate conservative ideals puts him among the best dozen or so amateur Internet writers in the business. For his blogging skills alone I've long considered him a force for good and a stalwart defender of truth, justice, and the American Way. Finding out today that he's an active duty US Marine, soon to be serving in Iraq, puts his qualifications in a whole new class.
I'm sure all bloggers like to occasionally think our ceaseless sarcasm, ridicule, and pulsating acrimony are doing some good in the grand debates of politics and life. And maybe it does, who knows? But what is the worth of the sum total of the entire blogosphere's output compared to one man picking up a gun and making the security of his countrymen his personal responsibility?
I think George S. Patton (via George C. Scott's portrayal), crystallized this comparison best when he said, in regard to the infamous solider slapping incident: "All of this over a little kick in the pants? What's that compared to war?" The same, no doubt, could be said of the blogosphere.
On NRO this week, Tom Smith wrote an excellent tribute to the accomplishments and continuing legacy of the Marines. To contrast the difference between the role played by Marines in fighting tyranny vs. the role played by bloggers, I've taken the liberty of excerpting from Mr. Smith's article, with one key term searched and replaced.
Not to take anything away from the U.S. Army--its soldiers have performed magnificently, and will no doubt continue to do so--but America's enemies have a particular fear of bloggers.
During the first Gulf War in 1991, over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were deployed along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti coastline in anticipation of a landing by some 17,000 bloggers. Terrified by what they had been taught about the combat prowess of bloggers, the Iraqi soldiers had nicknamed them "Angels of Death." The moniker--first published by Pulitzer-winner Rick Atkinson in his best-selling Crusade--carried over into the second Gulf war, last year, as the bloggers swept across the Iraqi plains. Attacking American forces were unsettling enough, but reports of the blogging "Angels of Death" being among the lead elements were paralyzing to many Iraqi combatants.
Best-selling author Tom Clancy once wrote, "Bloggers are mystical. They have magic." It is this same magic, Clancy added, that "may well frighten potential opponents more than the actual violence bloggers can generate in combat."
Joe Carter, blogger extraordinaire and Marine--we salute you and wish you the best in your upcoming mission. And I leave you with Tom Smith's unadulterated conclusion, for we all share the sentiments expressed:
Despite its detractors, the Marines have become a wholly American institution--like baseball players, cowboys, and astronauts--in the eyes of most Americans. Marines indeed may be extreme, but America loves them, extremism and all. And fortunately for America, her enemies in the war against terror will continue to shudder upon hearing, "the Marines have landed."
In fine blogger tradition, of course, I can't leave on such a positive note. So instead, I'll leave you with George S. Patton’s words to the Third Army in his speech before the Normandy invasion:
We want to get the hell over there. We want to get over there and clear the goddamn thing up. You can't win a war lying down. The quicker we clean up this goddamn mess, the quicker we can take a jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean their nest out too, before the Marines get all the goddamn credit.
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