Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Bush Takes Swipe at NY Times
A few weeks ago, Michelle Malkin and other right leaning critics savaged The New York Times for - in their eyes (and the family's eyes, too) - taking some words out of context that a Marine killed in Iraq wrote which was referred to in a close-to-5,000 word article called "2,000 Dead: As Iraq Tours Stretch On, a Grim Mark."
The New York Post called it "An Obscene Omission," in that The New York Times didn't fit to print more of a prophetic letter the Marine left on his laptop for his girlfriend before dying.
In his speech at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, President Bush dutifully read what the Times didn't print:
One of those fallen heroes is a Marine Corporal named Jeff Starr, who was killed fighting the terrorists in Ramadi earlier this year. After he died, a letter was found on his laptop computer. Here's what he wrote, he said, "[I]f you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq. I don't regret going. Everybody dies, but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so they can live the way we live. Not [to] have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators_. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
There is only one way to honor the sacrifice of Corporal Starr and his fallen comrades -- and that is to take up their mantle, carry on their fight, and complete their mission.
President Bush omitted to quote the same part that The New York Times quoted from Corporal Starr's letter:
"I kind of predicted this," Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. "A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."
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