The Meaning of the Medal of Honor
By Ali Elizabeth | June 5, 2008
On June 2, 2008, the parents of fallen soldier and Medal of Honor recipient Ross McGinnis were presented the highest award in our land by President George W. Bush in an Oval Office ceremony. Ross was in Baghdad when I was, and fought and died in a particularly rough neighborhood across town from me. As I studied the picture of Ross, someone I never met but nonetheless felt connected to, it was as though his mischievous eyes twinkled and danced right at me. He reminded me of so many soldier angels with crooked haloes who grinned their way in and out of our MWR center at the transit base where I worked, who are safely tucked away in my heart forever. When interviewed, his parents went on at great length about the positive changes that had occurred in his life since joining the Army. In certain circles of American society, there is no small amount of disagreement that any aspect of Army training could actually be a positive thing. I know I certainly used to feel that way.
Ross died in a way that has in our culture almost become a stereotypical expression of scorn for sacrifice, ie “falling on a grenade.” He threw himself upon a grenade that had been tossed inside their Humvee and by taking the blast in his gut saved the lives of his four buddies. One of the little girls whose father was spared speaks gratefully of Ross in her prayers every night because he “saved her daddy.”
Recently I had a lively and satisfying conversation with WGUL radio producer Joe Weaver about the effect of propaganda on our culture, and the first thing he did when he found out I had been in Iraq was to thank and bless me for being there. I always have a hard time with being thanked for going to Iraq, because I really cannot in any way compare my service to those of our soldiers. It is totally humbling whenever it happens, and when soldiers have saluted me I have completely come undone.
Joe wrote me the following recently in an email, and his comments perfectly illustrate the meaning of the Medal of Honor. He had read about sixty pages of the manuscript for Ballad for Baghdad, and said that as a result of reading it his “love, affection and extreme awe for our soldiers is only buttressed by your accounts.” The Medal of Honor is not about war, it is about love. It may occur in the context of war, in the heat of the worst battles, but it is about love manifested in an instant, total, irreversible and ultimately sacrificial manner.
What causes Joe and me dismay is that those who would reject out of hand the concept of heroism, patriotism and fighting for someone else’s freedom as being a waste are the ones who haven’t had to sacrifice their freedoms ever, let alone their lives. They would have probably jumped out of the Humvee and let the others die because they have never been taught that there is anything greater than themselves for which to live and die. I hope that the tales of courage that are captured in Ballad, when released in a few weeks, will on some level serve to restore the idea that being willing to die for freedom is in itself utterly freeing, and that ”greater love has no man, than a man lay down his life for his friends” is far more than just a platitude. It is the stuff by which our soldiers live and die, and there will never be enough medals struck or awarded to properly honor them. I, we, owe them a debt of honor and gratitude that is impossible to repay, but I know folks like Joe, and now even folks like me will gladly spend the rest of our lives trying.
Topics: Ballad for Baghdad, the Book | 1 Comment »
Stetsons for Terri Schiavo
By Ali Elizabeth | April 8, 2008
We are in the season of two things that if you stick with me, I’ll show you are related. The first is the 3 year anniversary of the hideous death of brave, dear, and fully alive Terri Schiavo, which was commemorated on 31 Mar 08.
Tomorrow, 09 April we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. How in the world, you may ask, are these related? I could be a total brat and tell you to just read the book the moment it comes out, as the title of this post is the same as a chapter in Ballad for Baghdad that discusses the connection at length.
So, ok, here is the tease: in order for terrorism to be effective, the person or group that is being terrorized must be dehumanized, and in order for for tyranny in all its forms to be defeated, there must be a committment up to and including death that overturns dehumanization through sacrifice.
Words like “products of conception” in place of “unborn child” fit this concept of dehumanization nicely, and Terri Schiavo was called a “houseplant” by the lawyer George Felos who worked so tirelessly to legally kill her.
I was in Iraq when Terri was killed, and I am here to tell you that if they could, there were soldiers who would have commandeered a Blackhawk, stormed the hospice where Terri was being held hostage, sprung her in style, and taken her back to Baghdad where she would have been safer than in Florida.
They would have done anything, including die, for Terri. They have sworn to protect us “from all enemies, both foreign and domestic,” and in their view, Terri was worth protecting.
What is little known is that we lost Iraqis back to the insurgency over the Terri Schiavo incident. Their thinking was, “If the President of the United States can’t save one disabled woman, what will he do to protect us?” And the soldiers, who were mortified by what was happening back home to Terri, had no good answer. To say they were demoralized is an understatement.
Barack Hussein Obama has made the statement more than once that the biggest mistake he has made as a neophyte senator was to vote unanimously along with the rest of Capitol Hill to help save Terri. There are a number of reasons why I don’t want this man to be our president, and none of them has to do with his middle name or the color of his skin. He appears to be a card carrying member of the death culture. This perception is strengthened by the fact that he voted against legislature that would require emergency medical care to be given to a baby that had just survived being aborted. I guess he is comfortable with the sight of a little one struggling to live, and being passively murdered through non-intervention. If a would be president will do nothing to protect the most vulnerable, then there is no way that the Oval Office should be his or hers.
The next time you think that on some level all things are not connected, think again. Across the Pond and in the Great Sandbox, the war for Iraq’s free future took a serious hit on 31 March, 2005, the day Terri was taken from us.
And, on this day in 08 April when veterans are in DC taking part in Vets on the Hill, my honor extends to a veteran of our culture war, Terri Schiavo’s brother Bobby Schindler. Bobby has become a phone friend, and is one of the endorsers of Ballad.
When I sent him an early version of Stetsons for Terri Schiavo, he told me after reading it that he had no idea that the soldiers felt that way about his sister, and that he hopes everyone can hear this story about an extraordinarily precious woman whose day of death was one of the blackest days in our American history.
Bobby goes straight into jaws of the death culture and speaks out for the disabled wherever he can. I have no doubt he would have died for his sister right along with the soldiers who would have given their life for her freedom if they had been given the chance to do so.
Bottom line: all of us, no matter where we are need to be willing to lay down our lives for freedom and for each other. One much wiser than I put it this way- “Greater love hath no man than a man lay down his life for his friends.”
I saw this in Iraq, I see it in Bobby, and it’s a condition that I hope will be contagious, especially in this election year.
Topics: Ballad for Baghdad, the Book | 2 Comments »
If Only “MoveOn” Would Just Move Away
By Ali Elizabeth | April 8, 2008
I don’t know HOW this happened, but somehow I ended up on MoveOn.org’s mailing list, and most recently they have wanted me to write my local paper to inform the editor of my opposition to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Because my comments would be filtered through their site, I doubt that if I try and slip past their cyber-gatekeeper and tell the local rag that I strongly support the war, that my little missle/missive of truth will actually end up “hitting” its target.
What is so irritating to me about the MoveOn folks is not that they are exercising their soldier-purchased, soldier-defended right to freedom of speech, it’s that they are cheeky enough to call themselves “the True Majority.” This is like Hillary Clinton falsely saying that she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire, “[is] human,” (regarding her now discredited version of the story,) and ”for the first time in 12 years [she] misspoke.”
Right. And I have a bridge in NYC for sale….
Today, 08 April 08, brave warriors of all the branches of the Armed Services are gathering in Washington DC for a multi-faceted event known as Vets on the Hill. They are in DC to celebrate what has been accomplished in Iraq, and to fan out and target bi-partisan lawmakers in order to make sure that their stories of progress are listened to.
If I were not putting the finishing touches on my book, I’d be there in the middle of it with them. I am sure there will be great photos available at my two fave pro-vet sites: www.vetsforfreedom.org, and www.moveamericaforward.org
Here are tales from the folks who are the most up-beat, and have the most to be sour about; the ones who have been in the Great Sandbox at its hottest, and many of them, several times!
If truth speaks to power with the impact for which I am praying, then eventually MoveOn.org will indeed have to just do that, move on and hopefully away from our brave ones.
Topics: Ballad for Baghdad, the Book | No Comments »
The “True Majority?”
By Ali Elizabeth | March 26, 2008
A couple of days ago I received an invitation via email to attend a candle light vigil to be held within a 100 mile radius of my home in Alabama commemorating the 5th anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
I eagerly “tore open” the invitation, thinking it was going to be something honoring our brave warriors and all they have miraculously accomplished in 5 years.
Surprise of all surprises, it was from MoveOn.org, and their intent essentially was to mourn the losses, dismiss the gains, and call for the immediate redeployment of the troops Stateside.
There were several things that irritated me about their invitation, but for the sake of this blog I’ll only mention two.
The first is that that either they don’t know to, or patently refuse to ask the soldiers what they think. If they were to ask the soldiers how they feel, I can say categorically that the vast majority of soldiers would prefer that Congress and other uninitiated just get out of their way and let them get their job done so they can come home when they are satisfied that the mission is stable. Novel concept, let the military run the military!
The second thing that made me have to do my labor breathing was the gall of MoveOn to describe themselves as the “true majority,” the ones who showcase the sentiments of most Americans. This simply is not true.
However, what it reminds me of is something I discuss in detail in the book, and that is my father’s committment to liberty as a former Naval Air Corps officer and member of The Greatest Generation.
In my “shut-down-Wright-Patterson-AFB” days my dad, to his credit, said through clenched teeth, “I may not agree with you, but I’ll fight like h_ _ _ _ for your right to believe what you want to.” I, of course didn’t get what my dad and millions like him had done for me until I went to play in the Great Sandbox, and now I see it as my duty and privilege to “pay it forward.”
So, utilizing my all-purpose Lamaze breathing I would say to the MoveOn folks, “Nope, I won’t be at your candlelight vigil for any other reason than to make sure that you thank a soldier for your right to assemble, and yep, even to disseminate misinformation.”
The longer I am involved in “birthing” this book, the more I appreciate my dad’s committment to my and our personal freedom.
And the more I see nonsense like MoveOn’s media campaign, the more I understand the necessity of getting Ballad finished and in the hands of anyone who is interested in the truth.
Topics: Ballad for Baghdad, the Book | 5 Comments »
Welcome to A Ballad for Baghdad, the story of an amazing 3 years in Iraq
By Ali Elizabeth | March 14, 2008
Hi,
My name is Ali Elizabeth Turner, and my soon forthcoming book entitled A Ballad for Baghdad will be published this summer by Morgan James Publications.
No matter what you may think about the war in Iraq, there are amazing stories that deserve to be told. Soldiers and Iraqis alike have demonstrated courage and compassion in the face of unspeakable evil, and you aren’t ever going to hear about it on Cranky News Network.
I promised them I would tell their tales, and for three years asked questions, listened, and collected stories. I have also written and recorded an actual ballad by the same name. All of it has been a labor of love born out of indescribable gratitude for my freedom, and I invite you to “sing” the Ballad with me.
Topics: Ballad for Baghdad, the Book | 8 Comments »