True courage

If you were left with a lingering feeling of disgust after reading the foul, hate-filled rhetoric of 9-11 apologist Ward Churchill, then I recommend reading the story of Sgt. Paul Smith.

On February 2, Sgt. Smith was named the first — and so far, the only — nominee for the Medal of Honor for service in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

His actions are a reminder that while the cowardly wanna-be revolutionary Mr. Churchill poses with guns and urges people to destroy America, other men with guns stand their ground and fight to defend it:

Smith climbed into the gunner's hatch. He stood behind the big machine gun, the upper half of his body exposed, the lower half protected by the armored vehicle. He started blasting away.

"Keep me loaded," he shouted to Seaman. Whenever the 100-round ammunition belt that fed the machine gun was about to run out, Seaman reached down for another.

Whenever Smith stopped firing so Seaman could reload, fire from the Iraqis would pick up.

From the hole in the wall, Sgt. Keller could see Smith and waved for him to get out of the courtyard. Word had it that Bradleys were on their way.

Smith motioned back: "No."

"I knew why he wouldn't leave," Keller said. Without Smith's machine gun, "there was no firepower out there."

It may be impossible to read Sgt. Smith's whole story without a tear coming to your eye.