We are All Jews: “That Such People Exist Give You Hope for Humanity”
Through my U.S. Naval Academy and USMC networks, I recently received a forwarded e-mail which underscored how an event in the past gives pause to where we are now, and where we need to shape our future.
The email was sent to me by an Academy classmate and Marine and highlighted a powerful event in the past which can guide us into the future,
His email focused on a video which talks to moral courage and underscoring why I chose the title for this column as “we are all jews.”
Watching the video will make this title very clear.
This video is the most amazing example of moral courage I have seen.
It really causes one to search their soul.
The following is from my friend Joe who is from New Jersey and you can still hear his accent, even through his writing:
“Some of you may know, my Dad was with the 7th Army in Austria when the Mauthausen Concentration Camp was found and “liberated.”
“My Dad was part of a U.S. Army Combat Engineer Company that was sent there on the second day after and they stayed for nearly two months.
“While they were raised as blue collar children of first generation immigrants (Poland, Ukraine and Italy on Mom’s side) we never tolerated anything that even resembled anti-Semitism.
“This video is not about that incident, but it is about the courage ANY American should show to another, and also what our Hebrew Brothers and Sisters deserve from us.
“This is important I think, and maybe you can get Whoopi Goldberg to view it. Blessings. Thanks. If you are Christian, remember, Christ is a Hebrew. Semper Fidelis. Shalom.”
If a senior Army enlisted man can face down an SS Major putting a Lugar to his head to save lives, it is a powerful lesson that rings down from history.
A key point made by one of his fellow solders is that not only did he save one life but he guaranteed the linage of many more family members yet to be born.
That was then, but where are we now?
One has to ask with the absolute debacle of the fall of Afghanistan where are the eighteen or so four star Generals who lead the war effort in speaking out about those American and Afghan allies left behind enemy lines.
If our worthy goal was to foster a nation of individuals believing in the peaceful tenets of Islam and then surrendering them to their horrific fate being left in the hands Islamic fanatical killers.
The solders credo; never leave anyone behind on the battlefield, then shame on our General Officer Corps.
God bless the courageous legacy of M/Sgt Roddie Edmonds U.S. Army.
I was personally told by the most Senior DOD IG for Afghanistan that these most senior four star combat commanders all personally knew that promises were made to those Afghan men and woman who helped us over the almost two decades of war.
Additionally, with respect to a much needed media spotlight ,where is the American mainstream media focus on the shift from no man left behind, to whole peoples left behind.
It takes a liberal British newspaper, The Guardian and the most prestigious newspaper in the world, the London Times to capture many elements of the evolving human tragedy caused by the Biden Administration’s incredibly lightweight national security team, including the NSC, Department of State, and by the historical failure of senior military and civilian DOD leadership:
For the U.S. senior military leadership. they are far from taking the moral stance of a World War II Army Master Sergeant.
But as one of the soldiers under his command highlighted: “that such people exist give you hope for humanity.”
That was then this is now.
We need to build on that ‘hope for humanity,” and start taking responsibility for the nation’s actions at the highest level of military and civilian leadership.
We need our senior military leadership to be leaders like M/Sgt Roddie Edmonds U.S. Army.
Not taking responsibility for what is going on for the legions left behind both in terms of U.S. citizens and allies left behind at the mercy of the Taliban is an historical event not easily erased from the history of senior American military and political leadership.
Perhaps this column, can get Whoopi to view it; but far more important is for the senior American military leadership to face up to their responsibility.