My old friend...

I am hoping to become reacquainted with a high school friend who has been serving in Iraq...
Two years and two purple hearts later...
I'm proud of my friend...
Even before the medals of honor...
Not everyone is willing or able to go out and fight physically for something they believe to be important...
Not everyone is willing or able to watch their friends die in mortal combat...
Not everyone is willing or able to keep on going while surrounded by death...
Not everyone is willing or able to sign their life away for years at a time...
Not everyone is willing or able to spend months in a merciless desert with merciless enemies...
Not everyone is willing or able to hope against hope that they'll see the next day...
Not everyone is willing or able to defend this country...
Not everyone is willing or able to defend me...
So...thanks.
We are so selfish so much of the time...