You’ll be hearing plenty in the coming days about Stephen Green, a former U.S. Army private accused by American government officials of killing four Iraqi civilians and raping one of them. You’ll hear less about the heroes among our troops. President Bush talks about the heroes, but somehow the attention the few bad apples.

Just last month, at the Merchant Marine Academy here in New York, Mr. Bush spoke of Lieutenant Aaron Seesan, who volunteered to go to Iraq to take the place of a wounded platoon leader. While Seesan was on a sweep of Mosul in May of 2005, a bomb exploded and hit the fuel tank of his Humvee. Mr. Bush said, “Those who were with him recall his last words: ‘Take charge, Sergeant Arnold, and take care of the others.'” Mr. Bush said that Seesan, while still in high school, “wrote a poem that now seems prophetic. He wrote, ‘Mourn not my terrible death, but celebrate my cause in life.'”

Yesterday, at Fort Bragg, Mr. Bush spoke of a special operations soldier, Captain Chip Eldridge: “In December 2004, Captain Eldridge was deployed at a coalition base near Shkin, Afghanistan, where he got a report that the terrorists were preparing to attack the base with a rocket. …His Humvee was hit by an antitank mine and his unit came under a barrage of gunfire. He pulled out of his vehicle and he looked down and he saw that part of his left leg had been blown off.”

The president went on, “Despite the intense pain, he refused pain killers offered by a field medic so he could stay alert to deal with the enemy. Soon, a team of A-10 Warthogs arrived and took care of the terrorists, and Chip and his men were evacuated. Eventually, Chip was transported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where doctors told him that he would be in recovery for at least a year. He told his doctors he had a change of command in six months and that he’d be out of recovery by then.”

Mr. Bush said that Captain Eldridge sped his recovery by tripling his daily physical therapy regime. He told his physical therapists, “I’m going to need to run, swim, jump out of planes, possibly ride horses; I’m not going to accept anything different.”

Today, Captain Eldridge’s commanding officer says, “I’d say he’s fitter than 90% of the people in the unit he commands. In a room with four people, I bet he could beat three of us in a mile run.” Now Captain Eldridge is out of Walter Reed and at Fort Bragg, where he’s jumping out of planes and training to return to Afghanistan.

Mr. Bush said, “With men like this leading our forces in the battle, the enemy doesn’t have a chance.” At least, those seeking to understand what America is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan need to know about not only the Stephen Greens but also the Aaron Seesans and Chip Eldridges.