Ever since man realized that there was power, money and religion, there has been war. From the earliest times until today, countries have fought over land, power and myth with their soldiers at the frontier. The same is true of modern-day America and the thousands of soldiers who have died in action or are still fighting in Afghanistan. These soldiers leave their families, jobs and all other securities behind to protect their country. Does this make them the ultimate real American hero?
First, we must answer the question of what a hero truly is, since it’s being overused in modern times. Hopefully we can agree that a hero, a true American hero, is someone who fights for what he believes in and protect those he loves; someone who wants to make the world a better place.
While we can’t pick every American soldier’s head for reasons he enlisted and is now fighting in a deadly war, many families and friends believe these soldiers are doing it for the reasons listed above – to protect their loved ones, their country and their pride. Many people on the web seem to agree. When you search for thanksgivings to the American Army thousands of blogs, messages and websites pop up. Most of them call the soldiers of today American heroes.
There are Facebook pages spurring American troops on and online charities that help by sending food, medicinal provisions and clothing to war. But it’s not a universal truth. More than one blogger has asked the question of whether it’s a good thing to call soldiers heroes – to make war a heroic act. The reason many ask this is because so much of what war is seems to be forgotten in the process of calling the soldiers American heroes. The facts of death, bloodshed, unfairness, tyranny and the suffering of the innocent goes to waste with this romanticizing of war and those partaking in it. Whatever the case may be there are certainly a lot of real American heroes among the troops out there. Soldiers die for lots of reasons. They die to save a friend; they die to save an innocent stranger, they die when they refusing to give out information that might endanger their country. They die in battle to protect all they love.
