Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor was killed in Ramadi on Sept. 29, 2006 when he threw himself on a grenade to save comrades standing nearby unaware of the circumstances. Michael was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor last week. Michael’s selfless courage symbolizes more than individual courage; it is also a metaphor for the War on Terror.
A favored tactic of the terrorist is to wrap themselves in explosives, walk innocently into a crowded market place and ignite an explosion. The terrorist isn’t concerned with the identity of the victims. Men, women and children are all the same because the goal is simply to kill as many as possible. The innocent victims have no inkling of their intended fate as they go about the ordinary tasks of life.
This savagery stands in direct contrast to Michael’s mercy. Michael knew exactly what he was doing when he threw himself on the grenade. That distinction lies at the heart of this war. Death is the primary objective of the terrorist. Life was the primary objective of Michael.
The 9/11 attack was a declaration of war on the standard-bearer of liberty in the modern world – America. The strategy is to establish a Muslim theocracy. The animating tactic is to induce terror with unprovoked and merciless killing.
This war unlike any other America has fought. The Jihadists are stateless religious fanatics capable of hiding in nations that do not have the will or the ability to stand up to their coercion. They have resource to great wealth siphoned off some of the poorest populations in the Middle East in payment for the oil resources developed by westerners and used to drive a prosperity that is unknown in human history. This combination of pre-feudal fanaticism, wealth and the fecklessness of many free nations constitute a threat not just to innocent life but for gains of human progress over the past 500 years.
This war is not fundamentally about the concerns of commerce or state. Instead it is a personal attack on our most precious gift – liberty. The greatest memorial we can offer to Michael is to defend what he fought to protect. And to understand that it is not the might of our arms but the indomitability of our values that will prevail.
