Signing Up

In today's Wall Street Journal, 31 year old reporter Matt Pottinger explains his decision to give up journalism for the Marine Corps. While the following passage is only a brief part of his explanation, it struck home with me as it helps describe why I'm shipping for Basic Training in a month:

A year ago, I was at my sister's house using her husband's laptop when I came across a video of an American in Iraq being beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The details are beyond description here; let's just say it was obscene. At first I admit I felt a touch of the terror they wanted me to feel, but then I felt the anger they didn't. We often talk about how our policies are radicalizing young men in the Middle East to become our enemies, but rarely do we talk about how their actions are radicalizing us. In a brief moment of revulsion, sitting there in that living room, I became their blowback.


Please read the rest:

Mightier Than the Pen