If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

I too thought that Micah's assessment of the soldier/grenade scenario was terribly lacking. Without going off the rocker, I think there are a great many things which might motivate a soldier to do something like that - compounded by the adamantium bonds formed between men under fire and constant stress, the mutual dependance upon one another for survival at every turn, etc. There is also a very skewed prisoner's dilemma going on there: "If I don't jump on the grenade, nobody lives. If I try to jump away, the others will die (as you suggest, wulf, with all the accompanying guilt) and there is a chance that I might not get out of harms way. If nobody jumps on the grenade, we all probably die. Someone has to do it..."

That said, and this is purely anecdotal, I had a friend who was killed in Baghdad last February. Graduated top of his class at Michigan State, was top of his class in ROTC, and had just been accepted to the 101st Mountain Division Rangers program. A few weeks in-country, he's 21 years old and commanding a platoon of older, more seasoned soldiers, because he was the best of the best. On their way through baghdad, he ordered his platoon to stop and give assistance to civilians wounded in a militant uprising. While attending to a wounded woman, stuck in a car, he was killed by a suicide bomber.

Was he honored posthumously? Yes. A 4-star general delivered the eulogy. They don't do that for every grunt who dies in combat. His wife received his purple heart and some other medals for valor. And I am absolutely confident that none of this influenced his decision to aid a complete stranger. He loved the Army, but I'm sure he would've rather been home with his wife, his family, and his friends.

He very easily could've delegated that responsibility to anyone under his command. Alot of people would have. First Lieutenant Adam Malson took it upon himself, because it was the right thing to do, to "lead by example," and because that's the type of guy he always was.

Thank you for sharing his story, Doink. I looked up your friend and read some of the memorials and news stories. I am curious, do you know his wife? This story noted that she is in the Army.

Here is to First Lieutenant Adam Malson. We are lucky that men like him exist.

I'll tip a glass for Adam tonight...

For the subject, I wouldn't consider Ayn Rand to be the definitive libertarian writer on this subject: it would be Heinlein. Rational self-interest is good for a desert island. But none of us live on one of those, and we all feel some sort of duty to our fellow man. Without that sense, society breaks down. I'd say that sense is much more prominently displayed in the people that choose military service. While the movie missed out on philosophy, read Starship Troopers. They give the franchise only to those who complete military service, and explain that the reason for this is that those people have demonstrated that they have that sense of duty.

I didn't know his wife - they had been married for a very short time (I think less than a year) when he was killed. She had spent most of the earlier part of their marriage in Afghanistan, and shortly after she came back, he was deployed.

He had gone to high-school with me (a year younger than me, and a year older than my brother, who was very good friends with him) and then off to Michigan State for college - I believe he met his wife in the ROTC program there...

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