A Real Soldier - A righteous Man

My wife was out of town this past weekend with some of her girlfriends...which means that I was at home, with the Dogs, the TV and the Whiskey.

So, I watched a lot of really bad TV over the weekend, like you do, mostly bad sci-fi; one of which was a movie called Soldier with Kurt Russell.

Now I would never get away with watching more than 2 minutes of this kind of movie if my wife were in the same room because she would demand that we watch something with less-of a retardation factor, of course we would then flip over to MTV for a Real World-Road Rules Challenge or to VH1 for yet another re-run of I Love 1982!...and I don't know how this is less retarded than a futuristic Kurt Russell who was raised from birth to be the perfect soldier on distant planets - but anywho, back to Soldier.

Here's a fun fact about the movie that I especially enjoy...Kurt Russell signed the contract for the movie soldier with one stipulation added by his agent; that Kurt Russell would be paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $144,000.00 per word spoken in the film. Sounds like a hell of a deal right?!

Turns out that when the movie was all said and done Russell only speaks about 4 times in the movie and utters less than 3 words each time he opens his mouth...all in all I'd say that Russell took home less than a million dollars total...I will now take this moment to imitate Nelson from the Simpsons and say "Ha-Ha".

The main storyline is pretty Saturday morning cartoon-ish when it comes right down to it...

There's the main character played by stoney-faced Kurt Russell, who is the perfect soldier, trained from childhood in a futuristic world to be everything that a futuristic marine needs to be.

Then there's the villain and his crew who are out to replace Russell's character and his fellow soldiers with some brand new genetically enhanced soldiers that are ten times more efficient and capable in almost every way....anyhow, a battle ensues over the course of the movie and Russell's tired old character ends up prevailing over the younger, more powerful soldiers sent to replace him and his comrades...the reason that Russell's character prevailed over the stronger, faster soldiers was of course that Russell's character had heart, soul and all of the ideals in mind that make a soldier worthy of a salute.

But, honestly, it's just a movie...big deal, right?

I didn't think about that movie or this post until this morning when I got to work, flipped on my computer and checked the news sites to make sure that the rest of the world hadn't blown up while I was sleeping...

That was when I came across this story...

Short story made shorter: A photographer captured the picture you see below after a group of terrorists drove bomb-laden cars through a crowded alley/street where several adults were doing business and 20 or more children were playing...the trucks plowed through the children, set off the bombs and killed almost everyone in the alley.

The picture shows Major Mark Bieger carrying one of the children struck by shrapnel and debris...the photographer said that Major Bieger was one of the the first on the scene and that he ran and started picking up children without any regard for his own safety...the picture shows Major Bieger holding an Iraqi girl close to his chest as he carries her away from the area of the blast...what the photo does not show that the photographer reported was that Major Bieger's eyes were streaming with tears of anger, frustration and sadness and that he was crying out loud as he carried that little girl to a relative safety.
It was reported later that the little girl died in Major Bieger's arms a few hours later.

I told you the story about the movie with Kurt Russell and the story about Major Mark Bieger to tell you why I believe that righteous men will always prevail over evil...

Because righteous men will always place themselves in harms way to protect the innocent, to protect life and to uphold decency...regardless of whether or not those that they are protecting request or desire their protection. Righteous men have heart and they were it on their sleeves. Righteous men have the moral high ground and that moral high ground demands that they deny themselves for the service and protection of others.

Terror comes in many forms and severities and is represented by many nationalities, if not all, at one time or another.

The true test of righteousness is how we will respond to that terror and how we will conduct ourselves in the face of pure evil.

I hope that I am never required to take up arms to protect that which I believe is worth protecting; but I hope that if I am required to do so, I will do it with the example of Major Mark Bieger in mind.