We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:43:15 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification From an email: I read your blog regularly. My son is on his second tour of duty in Baghdad this time with the 1st Cav. He wrote me the following tonight that I thought you might like to see. Thanks for your support of the troops and their families. I asked if I could publish it. Sure. Did not think it would fit your blog but I would be honored. To be more exact, as I know you have exacting readers, our son Captain Jon Brooks serves currently as the battle captain for 2-12 1st Cav 4th Brigade out of... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html Wed, 21 Feb 2007 06:16:14 -0600 Thank you for that. As you might imagine (those who know), the folks I've been engaged with since last year tend to not like it when I say things like: I believe Winston Churchill was meant by God to be the 20th Century's Horatius at the Bridge. Or that I believe God delivered copies of King George's speech to G. Washington on 1 Jan 1776, the last day before the Continental Army would have disbanded, at the hearing of which, the soldiers burnt "the speech and then raised the new red and white striped flag recently authorized by Congress on the liberty pole at Prospect Hill in Cambridge." Or that God put Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top. And so on.... In fact, I imagine a lot of people get kind of antsy (kind of all 'iffy') when I say stuff like that. We're ok in the USA with such things, but not too much, really, and not in public so much, eh? But it's certainly not ok (even provincial and embarrassing) to many furiously and righteously agnostic Europeans. S'ok. Just a couple of weeks ago, though, at the end of an interesting on-line post, a very spiritual, amazingly articulate co-student of mine wrote "God is not an American." I wrote to him to about it and he responded with something that is just absolutely typical of him: "I too believe that God is in the warp and woof of our country's governance. I wrote that last stark unsettling sentence to jolt both left and right to the fact that his agenda is beyond our comprehension; just like when he used Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1. Nevertheless, he has informed our lives with his word and his promises. Informed by his words and promises we can by faith take action. And yet we are still uncertain - that is what makes up half the equation of faith. The other whole (half) is the trustworthiness of faith's object." I was, as always, awed by the clarity of his thinking and his ability to touch truth. And, after reading CPT Brooks' msg, all I can think of is the hundreds of trillions of times in the past 230+ years that Americans have been "just" missed or "just" helped by the smallest of margins, so that not only could people like Churchill and Lincoln fulfill their appointed tasks, but so could we all, as "informed by His words and promises" we in faith take action. I believe. I have no proof except what I know in my heart, but for me that is enough. Again, thank you for the post. V/R SangerM http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56971 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56971 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:11:55 -0600 Prayers keep going out everyday. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56958 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56958 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:48:23 -0600 Russ or anyone. You have my permission to pass this along. Of course my son will die as with most of these guys he hates any kind of limelight. However, in these days of discouragement it is good to be encouraged! So pass it along! Mark http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56945 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56945 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:52:46 -0600 I would like permission to post this at my church. It sounds like he wouldn't mind, but I would rather know for sure. Thanks for posting the letter. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56943 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56943 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:09:19 -0600 it never hurts to stop by the chaplain's office before going out and after coming back in... it also never hurts to be going out in an M1A1. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56938 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/02/word_from_the_f.html#comment-56938 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:11:23 -0600