Memorial Day weekend is a time in our country to celebrate all our servicemen and women; fallen, retired, active and historic. We do this in our churches, at our war memorials, on our main streets and in our backyards and those are good. A country and its people should never forget the sacrifices made by its young men and women to keep it safe, secure its freedom and defend its sovereignty. There have been countless movies made and books written both glorifying and demonizing war and those who take part in them, and that is also good. What is not good is to forget the man who is ultimately responsible for making the decision to put our American youth in harms way, the President, and the burden he and he alone must bear.

The President of the United States holds the title of Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces and as such is the nations top soldier whether he actually served a day in uniform or not. No one other than the men who have sat behind the desk in the Oval Office can imagine the terrible burden it must be to sign the document to send even one soldier into war and possibly end their lives. It is impossible for the rest of us to comprehend the pain a President must feel when the first flag draped coffins are returned home and know he was responsible. It is equally impossible to believe that any President in our history has ever done so lightly or without great deliberation as to what is best for his and our country. Time and time alone are their ultimate judges. Historians will and have gone over every word spoken, every document written and every picture taken for every President alive and dead and for all those to come. Mistakes have been made in every war but historically those mistakes were in the politization of said war or in the actual prosecution of the war.

We are all human; especially Presidents, politicians and generals, and as such, let us all lay our biases aside, at least for this one weekend a year and remember our fellow Americans with kindness, grace and humility. Remember who we are as a nation and what we fight for, Freedom. Remember to thank our Armed Forces and our Presidents for those freedoms we enjoy and strive to earn those freedoms in our everyday lives.

ocdevilsadvocate


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