Wednesday, May 23, 2012

"Sacrifice"

April 3, 2008 | 8:35 AM

New John McCain Web ad ... Its buzz words -- duty, loyalty, God, national ideal, personal transformation, crucible, war, fidelity, valor, glory.

Full script available after the jump.

Script For "Sacrifice"

ANNCR: In the chaos, destruction and shock of war, soldiers are bound by duty and military discipline to endure and overcome.

Their duty and loyalty belong to their country.

They find solace in their faith in God.

But their strongest loyalty, the bond that cannot break, is to the cause that is theirs alone -- each other.

It is through loyalty to comrades in arms that they begin to understand that to love one's country is to love one's countrymen, and to serve the national ideal that commenced their personal transformation.

When war is over, they might have the largest but not exclusive claim on the success of their nation's cause and seldom share in the blame for its failure.

But their claim is shorn of all romance, all nostalgia for the suffering with which it was won.

From that crucible they have but one prize, one honor: that they had withstood the savagery and losses of war and were found worthy by the men who stood with them.

This is the truth of war, of honor and courage.

Before John McCain went to war its meaning was obscure to him, hidden in the spare language of men who had gone to war before him and been changed forever by the experience.

The Naval Academy, with its inanimate and living memorials to fidelity and valor, tried to teach him this truth.

But he had interpreted the lesson, as he had interpreted his father's example, within the limits of his vanity.

He thought glory was the object of war, and all glory was self-glory.

No more.

For he learned the truth: there are greater pursuits than self-seeking.

Glory is not a conceit.

It is not a decoration for valor.

It is not a prize for being the strongest, the most clever, or the boldest.

Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to the cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely, and who rely on you in return.

No misfortune, no injury, no humiliation can destroy it.

Join the Discussion

The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.

Comments powered by Disqus

 

Search This Blog


Archives

Monthly Archives

Recent Posts

Recent Comments


About

Contact On Call:


Staff

Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief
Sean Sullivan, Editor
Julie Sobel, Deputy Editor

Contributing Editors:
Josh Kraushaar and Quinn McCord
Contributing Writers:
Steven Shepard, Dan Roem, Tim Alberta, Stephanie Palla, Sarah Mimms, Kevin Brennan, Chris Peleo-Lazar and Scott Bland



Disclaimer

On Call editors reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments. The Hotline, National Journal Group, Inc. and Atlantic Media Company are not responsible for the content of the comments that remain.