Silver Star

One of the remarkable things about the war in Iraq is that while American misconduct, such as that at Abu Ghraib, and even alleged American misconduct, such as that at Haditha, have received tremendous amounts of press attention, American heroism has been given short shrift. But the dispatch from the Defense Department, datelined "Forward Operating Base Loyalty, Iraq" — about a 19-year-old Army private from Knox, Pa., named Ross McGinnis, who liked poker and loud music and who saved the lives of four of his fellow soldiers by falling on a grenade in Baghdad on December 4 — speaks to the remarkable bravery of American soldiers.

The dispatch quoted his platoon sergeant, Cedric Thomas, saying, "He gave his life to save his crew and his platoon sergeant. He's a hero." The dispatch says that McGinnis's action demonstrates that the "MySpace generation" — often criticized as self-absorbed — "has what it takes to carry on the Army's proud traditions." The Silver Star will be awarded posthumously. We happened to read about Private McGinnis's heroism after watching an interview that Sean Hannity conducted with American soldiers in Mosul in which one of the soldiers said that when they hear American politicians say America can't win this war, what they perceive those politicians to be saying is that they lack confidence in our own GIs. What a rebuke to defeatism is the heroism of the American GI.