The rescue of Lynch is a story from which the critics can learn a lesson. It is a story about the value of life and how the world's most powerful military employs its extensive resources and risks its most elite forces to save and rescue a single soldier -- because it views every life as precious. Because U.S. forces place such a premium on human life, they are going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and, in some cases, have put themselves in danger to save innocent Iraqi civilians.
The care with which U.S. forces are prosecuting this war stands in stark contrast to the illegal and immoral tactics employed by Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. Iraqi men are conscripted into Saddam's army while their wives and children are held at gunpoint. Civilians are used as human shields. The faces of captured and executed American prisoners are displayed on television, and the International Red Cross is still denied access to at least 16 other Americans and several Brits who remain missing and are presumed to be Iraqi captives. Saddam's henchmen refuse to comply with the Geneva Conventions, and Iraqi Interior Minister Mahmoud Diab Ahmed has boasted to the Arab press that American and British prisoners will be treated as "mercenaries, hirelings and war criminals."
Last week, I spoke with Maj. Sara Cope, a military policeman with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, about how prisoners are treated when taken into custody by U.S. forces. Just before we talked, her unit had taken custody of five Iraqis who surrendered peacefully. Of these five, at least two were farmers and two admitted to being soldiers, although they were dressed in civilian clothes. Cope told me all Iraqi prisoners are given food and water, and supplied with clothes and medical attention if needed.
After terrorist attacks on U.S. troops by Iraqis pretending to surrender, the Marines approach each such situation with great caution, but when the threat is neutralized or determined not to exist, they have a great capacity to care for those who have fled Saddam's brutal regime.
It is one of the qualities that makes these young men and women so special. Every old soldier likes to think that the very best ones are those with whom they served. But there has never been a military force so well prepared, so well trained and so well educated. Not only do they understand warfare and are well trained for it, they have mastered electronics, chemistry and biology, which are necessary given today's enemy and his proclivity for using the most horrific weapons.
This week, I asked Col. Joe Dunford to describe the 7,000 Marines he is leading to Baghdad. "They're just incredible," he said. "They are a great bunch, with great attitudes. They look out for each other, they trust each other, and they're ready to do whatever they're called upon to do." I can attest to that.