His "death" may have been meaningless, but his service was not. People die everyday, it's expected. But it's what you do just prior to your death that has meaning. No one glorifes the death of a soldier. What they glorify is the service, what he did prior to death. Like a soldier who jumps on a grenade to save his buddies - his death was meaningless, but his act was not. The author must be a buffoon not to understand this. If this is a glimpse of his depth of understanding then maybe his book isn't worth reading.
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Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the the Interior Staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. Uh, I want to thank my cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. Uh, I hear that Dr. Joe "Medicine" Crow was around. So I want to give a shout out...My understanding is, is that you uh had an extremely productive conference. - Opening speech from Obama the Clown after 12 soldiers killed in Ft. Hood, TX.