Former Marine, Former American?

The U.S. Marine Corps is known for producing fine quality men. Perhaps there are exceptions to every rule.

Ken Nichols O'Keefe is reported to be a Gulf War veteran Marine. The news of his experience there, and the details of his service are not yet public. We here in Oklahoma City already know that military service is not necessarily synonymous with American patriotism, nor are all the thoughts of a veteran thus validated by his service. Look at Timothy McVeigh, a fine quality soldier who, it is commonly known, was involved with Iraqi subterfuge as he bombed the Murrah federal building in 1995.

Ken Nichols O'keefe somewhere along the line got into the notorious "peace" movement, a global network of quasi-religious/political subversives. The Universal Kinship Society , Ahisma, Yoga for Peace, and a host of other associations are all gathering volunteers (as well as money) to travel to Iraq and act as human shields in a grand international "sit down" demonstration. (Who said the '60's were over?)

Not really an original (or cool) idea, since Saddam used western citizens as sheilds in the '91 Gulf War. 1,800 British citizens were used as human shields when Saddam invaded Kuwait. These Brits can tell a terrible tale of trauma, which these current enthusiasts do well to hear.

Peace at any price? This is what the peace-niks seem to be saying, yet this is precisely what leads to dictators, tyranny and oppression. This is why, as David Horowitz is saying, the peace movement is wholly suspect itself. I say war rather than that kind of "peace," any day.

Who wants war? None but the maniacle drugged-up fanatics really want war for war's sake. War is the worst thing that can happen to anyone who has anything valuable in this world. My sources tell me the Afghan war lords are all bound up with cocain and heroine operations, and that is behind all their "noble" fantasies of tribal identity. They have no real national identity. It is a land of drug gangs.

Ken Nichols O'Keefe is, I'm afraid, greatly mistaken. We don't know his background yet. We don't know if he is married, has family, if he had a distrubed childhood, etc. We don't know what would lead him to such an irrational position.

America is nowhere near perfect, but, what we have is worth protecting. It doesn't sound like t me that Ken Nichols O'Keefe loves America any more. Love always means taking into your very bosom rip-roaring error and fault in that other person. Love takes it all in. It has to, else there is no love. Humanity is a most faulty thing.

I'm sad for Mr. O'Keefe. I'm really sad. If he and all the other human shields are destroyed, which I believe they will be, I can only hope the rest of the world learns the lesson that suicide for what you believe is not the same as fighting for what you believe. The human shields are really the same as the suicide bombers, morally. Dying for what you believe doesn't automtically make it true or worthy, as Jonah Goldberg notes in his article on O'Keefe. All these shields are saying is that their lives are as useless as the terrorists. They have nothing valuable to live for, so they'd rather die in a desperate attempt to achieve significance.

I'm just really bummed that a Marine would come to feel this way about himself and his country.

Posted by David Yeagley at January 26, 2003 11:50 AM