The Biggest and the Baddest

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America considers itself the greatest country in the world. Rightly so. No other nation in world history has been as successful in defending freedom, opportunity, and openness for all as we have. We are the nation that invented the airplane, developed the automobile, put a man on the moon, won both World Wars against authoritarian governments seeking domination of innocent people, and we are the nation that has made so many advances in so many areas that it is impossible to name them all.

We are a country whose leader is considered the leader of the free world, and indeed, is the most powerful person on the planet. But every four years Americans can go to the polls, and vote him or her out, and they do. And our president, with enough fire power at his fingertips to blow the entire planet out of existence simply steps down meekly. It is a part of the miracle of America, where you can believe what you want, and say what you want, and not strung up on a light pole, or beaten to death because somebody doesn't like where you worship, or who you voted for in the last election.

We are a peaceful nation, we don't like war. But  paradoxically we are the country with the world's largest, most powerful, most advanced, most threatening and most un-apologizing military might in the history of ever. America has many secrets to its greatness, but this is one of our greatest.

It was our soldiers that won our freedoms in the 1770s, and fought for them again throughout the 1800s, even in our darkest hours, and it was our soldiers that kept our nation together, even when it looked like it might cease to exist forever. And it was our soldiers who brought freedom back from the brink of extinction during the great wars of the twentieth century.

Yes, we Americans are a peace loving people, even our soldiers are peace loving. But you can't have peace unless you are able to defend it. We haven't won every fight, militarily or economically, and we as a nation haven't always been perfect, but there is one thing we can say. We have the most patriotic, we have the best, the bravest, the baddest military ever. And that's something we can all be proud of.

Today, Memorial Day, is a time when we thank our soldiers for all they've done. And they deserve it.

Andrew C. Abbott