Harm in the Way of a Marine

It’s Sunday, it’s everyday, there are many prayers said for the safety of troops in harm’s way. But I think it needs reversing.

Harm is the aggressor. Harm is the one that plows down kindness. Harm slaughters. Harm rapes. Harm maims.

But Harm doesn’t get his own way every day.

When Marine’s are called, they land, they clear, they move forward. As they move, it’s not a Marine in Harm’s way. It’s Harm in the way of the Marines.  When that happens, that’s the end of Harm.  And Thank God for that.

Too many are naïve to the harsh reality that there will always be times when goodness must press ahead and let the soldiers of freedom intercept Harm’s path. Harm should never get the right of way.

If you don’t understand the need to reverse the order--the need to put Harm in a Marine’s way--I suggest you read this book, Rape of Nanking. The writer, Iris Chang, heard the stories of the massacre as a child. She wrote later in her book that throughout her childhood, the Nanking Massacre "remained buried in the back of [her] mind as a metaphor for unspeakable evil."

You cannot even page through this book’s images without feeling ill, crying. Nobody was there at the time to defend. The gang rapes were Harm on the offense. The decapitations were Harm on the offense. The skewers in a woman’s body were Harm on the offense.

Harm in those years, in these years, doesn’t pause to listen to the naive speeches politely asking Harm to Move On when it just isn't convenient to stop it.

Stopping Harm in those years required U.S. Marine’s landing on many brutally steamy volcanic crusted coral covered bits of land in the Pacific, islands with names most Americans, back then and still now, never heard of. And Thank God they did.  Harm soon found a Marine in his way. And when that happened, that was the end of Harm in the Pacific.

Yet another massacre just happened, in a desert village of Iraq. Our media didn’t write of this recent massacre of children, found decapitated, with their parents dead in the same mass grave; perhaps our media found it inconvenient to their marketing, ideological agenda.

But the rest of us aren’t so cruel to ignore, we want bad guys put on the run. As they are in Baqubah.

So thank you to you Fighting Sixth and the other good guys out there. Straight from the words of the Fighting Sixth, they write:

"The one thing that stands out the most in my mind is the enthusiasm of the local Iraqis. You can tell they want their neighborhoods back,” said Brown. “Many of them are willing to do whatever it takes to provide a safe environment for their friends and families to live and work in. It’s a good feeling to know that we are part of something that will change the future of this country, to see the city in the hands of the people. That’s where it belongs after all."

We pray for your success in putting Harm on the run and inviting kindness back home. With gentleness as your heart’s guide and strength as your offense, we are grateful you know when to do the right thing. We pray for Harm to be running away, far away, and for you, back home, to see us running back safely into your arms.

Comments

[Nancy]

Thanks for doing this ....I'm very proud of you for having the courage to step out!