I read this story this morning, and when I got to the end, I got choked up. It's about Pararescue Jumpers and a mission to save burned members of a freighter in the middle of the Atlantic. After saving their lives, they were made heroes in Slovenia.
On the Left in particular, there is a tendency to see America's actions abroad through their worst light. Certainly there are plenty of episodes in America's relations in the world that are bad. For every Korea, there's a Vietnam. For every campaign against ISIS, there's an Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yet there is at least an idea that American military might exists to serve a global good. This is perhaps especially true of the US Navy, whose mission it is to keep open shipping lanes around the world. When you get in trouble off the Horn of Africa or in the South China Sea, it will likely be the US Navy that comes to your aid.
Which is why this story is so appalling. We ask American serviceman and women to risk their lives for the national interest and for humanity at large, and at this critical moment, political actors in Washington are shitting on them. And don't think the sailors didn't notice. Their send-off for Capt Crozier should send chills down the spines of the very same political actors who seem to think they can spin their way out of the botching handling of the pandemic.
I watched this interview with Lt Gen Russel Honore, the man who took over the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, and his outrage over how this situation is being handled is incandescent.
I would guess we are about three weeks away from this thing sweeping through the rural and exurban South like Death's Scythe. There was a time we would be helping the world. Now we can't even help ourselves.
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