I’ve been trying to figure out how best to celebrate and mourn the members of Seal Team Six and our Afghan allies who were shot down in a Chinook helicopter last week. Hugh Hewitt does it well here. And I would add: those who would see this tragedy as another opportunity to make political points, on either side–please don’t. Not that those arguments aren’t worth making; indeed, they are crucial to the national discussion we’re now having about how and where we use our resources. But linking this tragedy to the larger policy issues would desecrate those we lost. In my experience, I’ve found Seals to be extremely mission-centric–they have to be given the difficulty of the missions they’re asked to perform–and not given to blowsy arguments about the big picture. Those who died understood that risking death was part of the bargain they made for doing the work they loved. They loved working in the most difficult circumstances to protect our security. They saw their work as an honor and a privilege. Each of them was, by definition, extraordinary.
In the coming weeks, I’ll have a lot more to say about the young men and women in our armed forces, and the remarkable qualities they bring to what they do. For all the yellow ribbons and reflexive “Thanks for your service,” most Americans really don’t understand how the asymmetric wars we’ve been fighting these past 10 years have changed the nature of the skills needed for soldiering and the dangers our troops face, and the creative, entrepreneurial skills they’ve brought to this new way of warfare.