This is a guy you really want on your side if you're serving in Ramadi, Iraq:
He was 5 when he first fired an M-16, his father holding him to brace against the recoil. At 17 he enlisted in the Marine Corps, spurred by the memory of 9/11. Now, 21-year-old Galen Wilson has 20 confirmed kills in four months in Iraq — and another 40 shots that probably killed insurgents. One afternoon the lance corporal downed a man hauling a grenade launcher five-and-a-half football fields away.
Lance Corporal Wilson keeps all this in perspective:
"It doesn't bother me. Obviously, me being a devout Catholic, it's a conflict of interest. Then again, God supported David when he killed Goliath," Wilson said. "I believe God supports what we do and I've never killed anyone who wasn't carrying a weapon."...
Insurgents "have killed good Marines I've served with. That's how I sleep at night," he says. "Though I've killed over 20 people, how many lives would those 20 people have taken?"
The marksman has it right: killing one's enemy in battle is an act of love for one's fellows. That is especially true when the enemy is comprised of men who work for an evil cause carried out by evil means. It is regrettable that these odious men abused their free will by trying to destroy the elected local government in Ramadi; it is lamentable that they threw away their lives. But it is a meritorious act to prevent them from achieving their ends, even if that means employing deadly force.
Some people like to say they're for "peace." Men like Lance Corporal Wilson help make it happen, one bullet at a time.
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