Lessons From Marcus Luttrell (Lone Survivor)

Marcus Luttrell (L) and Mohammad Gulab (R)

THIS (https://www.youtube.com/watch…) is a GREAT interview. Anderson Cooper visits with Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and the Afghani man who helped save his life, Mohammad Gulab.

The FIRST thing I took away from this story...and from the film "LONE SURVIVOR" is how we cannot afford to keep sacrificing the BEST of the BEST like this...losing so many exemplary lives like this. THESE guys are the rarest of commodities. Nations only get so many. I came away from seeing that film KNOWING that I am personally unworthy of their sacrifice. EVERY ONE of those guys were better men than I ever was, or will ever be. In fact, I can't think of ANYONE I've known who's worthy of that sacrifice (11 Navy SEALS and 8 Army Night Stalkers in that one mission). I can't think of a single elected official who measures up to these guys. As a nation, we are greatly diminished by the loss of guys like this. These guys aren't just "killing machines," they're very bright, incredibly self-disciplined and unbelievably self-motivated....the kinds of people who get things done, from starting successful businesses to just about anything else you can think of

The SECOND thing I took away is how little we really understand about so many other cultures. The very SAME code (Pashtunwalli) that Mohammad Gulab adhered to in protecting Marcus Luttrell from the Taliban fighters, is the SAME code that Afghanistan adhered to in refusing to turn over the al Qaeda members who'd sought refuge in their country after 9/11.

We all tend to see the world in our own image and when it doesn't easily conform to that image, we often try to remake it over to our liking....often with disastrous results. Look closely at Marcus Luttrell in this candid interview and you can very easily see the very ponderous burden of all those lost that he carries around in his heart every day. Just bearing that incredibly heavy burden every day is damned heroic.