An Anachronism in His Party

One of the more interesting moments in the Democratic debate last Tuesday night, at least for me, was when Anderson Cooper posed the question about who the candidates considered to be their enemy. Some of the answers were a bit peculiar. For example, Hillary listed, inter alia, the Iranians who want to see our children dead, and then went on to include the Republicans with whom she presumably will have to work if she's successful in achieving the presidency. It was a jarring juxtaposition.

The last candidate to answer the question was former Senator Jim Webb whose answer made the others' seem trivial, but for younger viewers his reply may have been a bit obscure. What was he referring to?

For those too young to remember, Webb is a former Marine and Vietnam veteran who received the Navy Cross for valor in combat. Here's an excerpt from his citation:

On 10 July 1969, while participating in a company-sized search and destroy operation deep in hostile territory, First Lieutenant Webb’s platoon discovered a well-camouflaged bunker complex which appeared to be unoccupied. Deploying his men into defensive positions, First Lieutenant Webb was advancing to the first bunker when three enemy soldiers armed with hand grenades jumped out. Reacting instantly, he grabbed the closest man and, brandishing his .45 caliber pistol at the others, apprehended all three of the soldiers. Accompanied by one of his men, he then approached the second bunker and called for the enemy to surrender. When the hostile soldiers failed to answer him and threw a grenade which detonated dangerously close to him, First Lieutenant Webb detonated a claymore mine in the bunker aperture, accounting for two enemy casualties and disclosing the entrance to a tunnel. Despite the smoke and debris from the explosion and the possibility of enemy soldiers hiding in the tunnel, he then conducted a thorough search which yielded several items of equipment and numerous documents containing valuable intelligence data. Continuing the assault, he approached a third bunker and was preparing to fire into it when the enemy threw another grenade. Observing the grenade land dangerously close to his companion, First Lieutenant Webb simultaneously fired his weapon at the enemy, pushed the Marine away from the grenade, and shielded him from the explosion with his own body. Although sustaining painful fragmentation wounds from the explosion, he managed to throw a grenade into the aperture and completely destroy the remaining bunker.

Webb stood on that stage last Tuesday, at least in that moment, like Gulliver among the Lilliputians. It's too bad that in today's Democrat party men like Webb are anachronisms.