The New York Daily News’ Mike Daly tells of a letter passed on from an Army Sergeant Major:

“I sat in on the daily briefing held here, in Baghdad. One of the features of the briefing is the Chaplain’s portion, where they stop to honor the Hero of the Day…. That particular day, the Hero was Lance Cpl. David Mendez Ruiz, a young Marine. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it. He was the youngest of eight children, a naturalized citizen who had come to the United States from Guatemala at the age of 6. He waved goodbye to his family on the Fourth of July of this year for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was killed in action 15 Nov. 05.

“Nowhere, except probably in his hometown and a handful of military periodicals, was his death brought to the attention of the American people. I was so furious after seeing the shameful national media spend days bemoaning the loss of a convicted killer of four when fine young men and women such as this are never even mentioned that it took me until now to write.”

Mr. Daly points out the choice the MSM makes in its intentional bent against the administration’s efforts in Iraq. Why else would the MSM write extensively of a cowardly murderer on death row and his alleged redemption and all but ignore those brave troops who fall in Iraq unless someone in their family subsequently rages their loved one died for oil or a lie?

He went on to write about Sergeant Ronnie Bucca, the son of a 9/11 hero, who:

“… returned [from Iraq] to spend two precious weeks with his grandfather, retired Battalion Chief Bart Mitchell. The younger Bucca was due back [from Iraq] in early January so the Army decided there was no sense in him returning to Iraq for such a brief time. Mitchell died on Christmas Eve with the comfort of knowing his grandson would not be heading right back into harm’s way. At the wake, some of us who saw Bucca standing in uniform by Mitchell’s open coffin wondered if the elegant old firefighter had saved one more life.”

As I today emailed Mr. Daly:

“I do not know if your intent was to differ with Ronnie Bucca’s and David Ruiz’ choice when you wondered, “if the grandfather’s death had kept the grandson from becoming one of those ill-fated soldiers who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I do know we chose, as a nation, inaction and willful ignorance prior to Ground Zero and the invasion of Iraq that led to the death of many at the hands of terrorists and a tyrant. And I do know the brave were compelled to serve in both places. Whether a forgotten roadside in Iraq or the 78th floor of South Tower was where heroes died, the courage and compassion that took them there is far more important than the location where they fell.”

On 9/11, Ronnie’s father, Fire Marshal Ron Bucca freely chose to run up those stairs, to direct the injured towards safety, and to man a line off a stand-pipe with Chief Orio Palmer knocking down fires raging amongst the dead and dying on the 78th floor of the South Tower. The heroes of 9/11 — the survivors and the fallen — tried to limit the death toll caused by America’s failure to go after terrorists and the tyrants who support them.

Cpl. David Mendez Ruiz and Sergeant Ronnie Bucca made that same kind of choice. While they also faced more of the same kind of enemies, they did it on their terms and not the enemy’s.

Yet the MSM prefers to sing the praises of cold-blooded murderers over brave troops who take the fight to those terrorists who seek to slaughter more here and tyrants who would fill more mass graves in their own nations.

guest contributed by the webmaster of 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America