Idaho Marine Injured In Iraq

I was touched by this story about an Idaho track star who joined the Marines in his junior year in college. He was badly injured in an IED attack in Iraq earlier this month:

"Marine Cpl. Travis Greene, a 1999 Twin Falls High School graduate, is recovering at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after losing both legs above the knee.
"The 24-year-old, in his third tour of duty in Iraq, was part of a team of Marines evacuating other Marines who had been injured in an earlier explosion. During the early December operation, a second explosion occurred.
"Three other Marines and one Navy corpsman also lost one or both of their legs in the blast. Two were badly burned.
"The injured soldiers were taken to a battlefield hospital and then to Germany before being flown to Bethesda. Greene was given 79 units of blood by the time he reached the United States."

I admit that sometimes I get depressed about what a cluster has been made of Iraq; I start to think that while we went in with good intentions, somehow our lack of understanding of both Arab culture and the ability of the American body politic to maintain the required resolve has made it unlikely that we'll be able to "transform the Middle East" in this campaign.

But then I think of the service of people like Idahoans Carrie French and Travis Greene, and I can't in good conscience support stopping short on our effort without seeing it through -- we may change at least part of the Middle East into a society that doesn't want to attack us (what I think the President means by "victory") if only we hold on a little longer. We owe that much to those who have given so much, that we do all we can to ensure their sacrifices were not in vain.

Going deep...