Heroism in the US is not to be found in our leaders

Instead we must look to brave citizens. I am very sorry for the loss of these two young men.

Virginia

Two Of Soldiers Who Penned Times Op-Ed Criticizing War Appear To Have Died

Staff Sergeant Yance Gray and Sergeant Omar Mora are both reported dead. In their op-ed, the soldiers wrote that despite their grave misgivings about the war strategy, "as committed soldiers, we will see this mission through."
# The War as We Saw It

It appears that two of the soldiers who helped co-write a riveting New York Times Op-ed last month criticizing U.S. war strategy in Iraq have now died.

The two soldiers are Staff Sergeant Yance Gray and Sergeant Omar Mora. Those are the names of two of seven soldiers who co-wrote the Op-ed, which described the political debate in Washington as "surreal," opining that "to believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched."

Now a local Texas station is reporting that Mora was killed Monday in a vehicle rollover accident that killed seven troops.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Gray died in similar fashion.

I've got a call into the Pentagon press office seeking confirmation that these two are the same soldiers that wrote the Op-ed. Over at Editor and Publisher, Greg Mitchell says that they are the same, as does a diarist over at Daily Kos.

Back when the soldiers' courageous Op-ed appeared, it received scant media attention -- far less, for instance, than an Op-ed by Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack arguing that the surge is working.

more at......

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/09/tw...

NEW YORK Robert Capetillo never read the controversial column his son, Omar Mora, co-wrote with six other Iraq-based soldiers for The New York Times. But when he heard about it, he had only high praise.

"Everybody has a right to speak out," Capetillo told E&P Wednesday, just two days after Mora, an Army sergeant, and fellow column-writer Yance Gray, were killed in Baghdad. "We all have a right to speak out what we feel. There are personal feelings, that is a right here we all have."Richard Gray, father of Yance Gray, offered similar views on his son's part in the column. "I thought it was well-written and there wasn't anything in it I disagreed with, with that situation over there," he said via phone from his Montana home. "He said once that they need to divide the country up into three different countries to make things work."

Among the statements in the column, published last month, were: "In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_di...

I am so sorry they are gone.

BUT I am also thankful they voiced their opinions that will forever be out there for all of us to read. Thank you for your service and unfortunately your sacrifice.