The Greatest Generation Is in Action Today, Too

In 1998, Tom Brokaw wrote a book heralding the men and women of the generation who came of age during the depression and World War II and went on to build modern America. That same year, Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" was released as a fitting tribute to the heroics of the military that won the war and saved the world. Mr. Brokaw's book was called "The Greatest Generation" and until September 11, the superlative case of its title was definitely apropos. Without taking away any of the glory due that older generation, it's also time to recognize that American heroes are not from the distant past, but are alive and some are still dying for love of their country. Pat Tillman, the former NFL star who passed up a multimillion-dollar contract to join the service after 9/11, was killed in Afghanistan last week, and the news of his death is giving him the attention he spurned while alive. Some in the mainstream press could not understand why a young man who had a lucrative career ahead of him would do something as foolish as give it up to fight for his country. How archaic! In Mr. Brokaw's book, he writes about a generation that was united with a common purpose and common values: duty, honor, economy, courage, service, and love of family and country. Until September 11, these values did not seem to describe those held by what we dubbed the slacker generation. Yet after that awful day, we heard untold stories of ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of courage. World Trade Center workers helping their injured and incapacitated coworkers get to safety. Firefighters and police officers risking and losing their lives rescuing the thousands of trapped victims. Airline passengers thwarting another hijacked plane from crashing into the Capitol. Sal is a native Staten Islander who asked me not to use his name so he'd feel free to rant. He is in his late 70s and a member of that great generation honored in Mr. Brokaw's best-seller. He was just a teenager when he was drafted into the Army and went to Germany soon after the Battle of the Bulge. He told me he was scared, as were most of the soldiers, but he did what he was supposed to do. Everyone there felt that they were fighting for their country, but they also had no choice. The soldiers who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are a voluntary force. Words cannot describe the magnitude of their mission and their dedication, but they are getting a raw deal from the mainstream press and broadcasters. Sal expressed his disgust with their lack of understanding of the military at war. "When we were fighting in Europe, there was never any question about collateral damage," he said. "There were never reports about how many innocent women and children were being killed. If mortars were being fired at us from a town, the town would be flattened out. We were at war and the Germans were the enemy. Now in Iraq, the military is being so careful not to hurt any innocent people and are using restrained force, and they get no appreciation for this. None." Sal is absolutely correct and judging by the poll numbers that continue to support the president, he's not alone in understanding the truth about the war that somehow is escaping the liberal press. He went on: "All this talk about the WMDs and unilateral nonsense is just stupid. I don't understand why some people just don't get it. The United Nations signed a treaty with Iraq, which Saddam broke and the U.N. did nothing about it. We ought to tear down that building and kick them all out." It's outrageous to still hear complaints about how we need to get back into the good graces of the international community. There are 32 countries in the coalition fighting and dying with our men and women. Apparently, their blood doesn't amount to much according to critics of the war. The fact that France, Germany, and Russia had economic ties to Saddam Hussein and were never going to vote for the war, doesn't resonate with the anybody-but-Bush crowd. As the rhetoric gets nastier and more desperate, many in Sal's generation are losing their patience with the so-called intelligentsia who give token support to the soldiers while blasting their presence in Iraq as unnecessary. Bob Woodward, who's plugging his book "Plan of Attack," looked so smug on "60 Minutes" when he said about President Bush, "He's not an intellectual. He is not what I guess would be called a deep thinker. He chastised me at one point because I said people were concerned about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. And he said, 'Well, you travel in elite circles.' I think he feels there is an intellectual world and he's indicated he's not a part of it...the fancy-pants intellectual world. What he calls the elite." No, Mr. Woodward, the president was telling you and that so-called intellectual elite that you're the real boobs. Sal gets it. So does the rest of the Greatest Generations I and II who genuinely understand what love of country means.