The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS Dying is easy for brave men. It is livingthat is hard...living with dignity and courage. It doesn't take a lot ofcourage to give up a seat on the subway...but there are times when thetests are more important and the stakes are much higher. Bill Bonnerexplores...REAL HEROESby Bill BonnerAnd one was a soldier, and one was a priest,And one was slain by a fierce wild beast...they were all of them saints of God;and I mean, God help me to be one too. -A hymn we used to sing in churchLife is not like school. In real life you never know when the tests willcome...or what form they will take. They come upon you unannounced andunlabeled. You don't even know when you are being tested.We watched a scene in an immigration line recently. From near the end ofthe line, we saw a very pregnant woman - she looked as though she mighthave been from the Middle East - with two small children, one in astroller, the other tugging at her hand. The poor woman was having a timeof it. The line advanced very slowly. The children were tired. She hadmore than she could handle. We hoped an agent would step forward and takeher to the head of the line. But none came. Nor did anyone in the linehelp. It wasn't clear how they could help. DO NOT USE CELL PHONES, saidthe posters. DO NOT TAKE PHOTOS. Could the woman leave the line? Peoplewere timid, a bit embarrassed. Most merely looked away. Finally, a youngman with a bright smile and blond dreadlocks, near the front, signaled toher to come ahead and take his place. Another time on the subway in Paris a plump woman of about sixty years ofage came into the car. A man has to be careful about giving up his seat toa woman. He never knows whether she is old enough to appreciate thegesture. Unless the old girl is ready to fall down, she is likely to beinsulted at being taken for an older woman. Besides, people don't want togive up their seats. So they tend to keep their heads down, pretending notto notice.After only a moment of hesitation a young man got up and offered her aseat, which she gratefully accepted.Neither of these small acts of kindness will make the history books. Wecall attention to them today not for their grandeur, but for the grace ofthem. Today, we do not pause in sorrow and silence over the depths ofdarkness in man; no, we rejoice in his rare moments of dignity andcourage.If life were like school, George W. Bush would have known that Iraq wouldtest him and his administration. He might have done a little study beforegetting involved in the area. He could have begun, we would suggest, byreading our own book - The Essential Classics - [from Les Belles Lettresavailable from Amazon.com:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/2251450106/dailyreckonin-20/ There, he could have begun his research with the life of one of theworld's most successful men of action - Alexander the Great. Alexanderconquered the entire 'known' world. But even Alexander couldn't surviveIraq. He died in Babylon in 323 AD.Or maybe he could have boned up on the history of the greatest empire ever- Rome. He could have read about Emperor Septimius Severus's attack onCtesiphon, near present day Bagdad. At least, Severus had a plan. Hecaptured 100,000 prisoners - whom he sold into slavery. Back then empirewas not only a source of glory...but of profits.But glory is our subject today, not profits. We wonder who gets it and whodeserves it. Generally, we note, they are not the same people.In retrospect, George W. Bush might have spent a few hours studying morerecent conflicts between Christendom and the Muslim world. Just as LyndonJohnson could have taken a little insight from France's war in Indo-China(later known as Vietnam)...America's current president surely could havelearned something from reading a little about France's war in Algeria. TheFrench are always ahead of us; no military campaign or political projectis so stupid that the French haven't already tried it.It was after World War II that an independent movement in Algeria tookhold. France sent its brave young men to put down the uprising, but afterfighting for a few years, the French had had enough. They could win thebattles, but they could never win 'hearts and minds' by killing Algerians.Only when the French had withdrawn, did the real killing begin and thereal heroes appear. Hundreds of thousands of local Algerian soldiers had fought next to theFrench. These 'Harkis' had been loyal to the French for many years. Butwhen the time came for the French to leave, the Harkis were to be leftbehind. What awaited them was vengeance.An article in Le Point from February 2002 noted that were 200,000 MuslimHarkis who had fought with the French. And after the French left,approximately 50,000 of them - including many entire families as well ascivilian authorities that had cooperated with the French - were murdered.Whether the French saw it coming or not, we don't know. But a few officersrealized that their men - if they were left behind - would be massacred.The killing was often barbaric. Victims were crucified. Their limbs weretorn off. They were butchered, mutilated...tortured in ways that plumb thedarkness of the human spirit. A mayor was buried up to his neck; honey wassmeared on his head. He suffered hours of agony, being eaten by flies andants, before finally passing out and dying.Some of the French military officers were outraged that they had beenordered to abandon their men under these circumstances. Brave men followorders. But braver ones have the courage to disobey.We recall our neighbor, Francois, who fought in Algeria telling us:"One colonel didn't want to abandon his men. He marched them up to Oranwhere the ships were taking the French back to France. He went up to theship's captain and demanded that he load on his troops - who were notFrench, but local Harkis...you know, Arabs. The captain of the ship saidhe was not authorized to take the Harkis. The colonel pulled out hispistol and put it up to the captain's head. 'Take them all, or I'll blowyour brains out,' he said. He got them back to France. But I think thecolonel was arrested. And the Harkis were sent back."Still a few officers - such as Daniel Abolivier - were able to organize anunderground railway to get the Harkis to France. A few survived. Theothers were lucky if their throats were cut. George W. Bush likes to be thought of as a man of action. But there is atime for thought...and a time for action. A married man who has fallen inlove with his secretary, for example, has already gone too far. He shouldhave thought about it earlier. And when George W. Bush decided to invadeIraq, too, a crucial opportunity for reflection, for study and forpreparation was missed. Now, he has to wonder what will happen to his ownHarkis when he leaves. In the Vietnam War, Johnson and McNamara sent hundreds of thousands ofbrave young men on a fool's errand. More than 58,000 of them didn't makeit back alive. They all got medals and were all called 'heroes' by theirfamilies and by the politicians. But the rest of the nation didn't quitebelieve it. Those who served in Vietnam were certainly brave...a man hasto be brave to face death. John Kerry certainly wanted voters to see himas a war hero when he showed off his medals. But the medals sagged a bitwhen they were hung around John Kerry's neck. Dying is easy for brave men. It is living that is hard...living withdignity and courage. It doesn't take a lot of courage to give up a seat onthe subway...but there are times when the tests are more important and thestakes are much higher.When asked to serve his country in Vietnam, Muhammed Ali famously said"No". The media branded him a coward. But Ali faced no threat in goinginto the army in 1967. It had already offered him a cushy job teachingboxing and acting as a PR man for the Pentagon. The war in Vietnam wasalready very unpopular. Ali could have served his time in relative safetyand luxury...making appearances for the cameras and the clowns...talkingup the war effort. On the other hand, if he didn't go...the punishment would be severe. Hewould be stripped of his boxing title. He wouldn't be able to box; hewould have a hard time earning a living, let alone paying the legal feesthat would be needed to keep him out of jail. Plus, he would be called atraitor.But Ali still said "No". It was against his Black Muslim religion. And headded: "I ain't got nothin' against them Viet Cong..." and "No Viet-Congever called me a nigger."No medals were pinned on Muhammed Ali. They give you medals for helpingthe politicians with their public spectacles. They don't give you medalsfor standing in their way. Sophie Scholl and her brother stood up toAdolph Hitler. They were among the few in Germany to protest the Nazi'scampaign of conquest and extermination. They were hanged for it. Most brave Germans did their duty and won their medals. In his bookOrdinary Men, Christopher Browning tells the story of the HamburgPolicemen who were sent to Poland to round up and murder Jews. At first,the men were reluctant to carry out their mission. Some were sickened byit. And at least one man refused - Lieutenant Heinz Buchmann. He announcedthat "in no case would he participate in such action, in which defenselesswomen and children are shot." The others considered him 'too weak' to dothe work that had been given them. They saw him as a shirker...and acoward. We don't know what happened to Lieutenant Buchmann. The record says onlythat he was 're-assigned.' We only regret that there weren't more likehim.Of course, not all heroes are in the military.On January 13, 1982 at 3:59 in the afternoon, Air Florida Flight 90 tookoff in heavy snow from Washington's National airport, now known as ReaganNational Airport. The pilots were not accustomed to snow. One had failed aflight simulator test earlier in the year. The plane's wings had beende-iced. But there was a long line waiting to take off from the airportthat day. The wings should have been de-iced again, but the pilots decidednot to spend the time. Instead, they took off. Heavily. A few minuteslater, the black box recorded this brief conversation in the cockpit:"Stalling...we're falling...""Larry, we're going down Larry.""I know it."Silence.Where they were going down was right onto Washington's busiest highway,U.S. 395, and just at the 14th Street Bridge. The plane smashed into thebridge and bounced into the Potomac River. Most of the crew and passengerswere killed immediately, but seven survived and were thrown into theriver...then, icy cold. They couldn't last long - a fact that must havebeen obvious to Roger Olian, who jumped from his truck, into the water totry to save them. Unfortunately, Olian wouldn't last very long either. Hehad almost stopped breathing and turned blue by the time a helicopter cameto his rescue.It was a bad day in Washington. The snowstorm had caused a train wrecktoo. And traffic was gridlocked. Emergency services had a very hard timegetting to the scene. Helicopters, trying to operate in the heavy snow,were having a rough time too. People on the bridge saw the plane go down.They saw the survivors in the water. But what could they do? Theyfashioned a line out of scarves and belts and tried to get it to those inthe water...but it didn't work. Olian jumped in. But that didn't workeither. Finally, a helicopter arrived...and began to pluck the passengersout of the water. But by that time, the survivors were barely alert. Then, one of them took the lifeline, wrapped it around himself, and waspulled to safety. Coming back for other passengers, the line came toArland D. Williams, Jr. Arland had not expected a test that day. But hepassed with glory. Instead of taking the line himself, he gave it toflight attendant Kelly Duncan. Then, on the next trip, he passed it to JoeStiley, who was severely injured...and to Priscilla Tirada and PatriciaFelch. Ms. Tirada's husband and baby had just been killed in the crash.She was so hysterical she fell back into the water...too weak to hold ontothe line. And here, another hero appeared. Lenny Skutnik took off his coatand boots and swam out to help her. The two were rescued.That left the sixth passenger, Arland D. Williams Jr., still in the river.The helicopter rushed back to get him. But he had been in the freezingwater too long. When the helicopter got there...he had slipped into theriver's icy embrace forever.Skutnik, Olian, and Williams (posthumously) were given the Coast Guard'sGold Lifesaving medal.Bill BonnerThe Daily Reckoning