God Bless America.

The finest, most powerful, most beneficial, most reviled political experiment any group of mongrels, misfits, rejects and risk-takers ever assembled into a nation.

And let’s please say Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps, celebrating its 230th year — the few, the proud, the Marines — and once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fidelis.

After several attempts by the American colonies reconcile the Crown and the American people, the Colonial Congress decided to assume a more serious attitude. A congressional committee drafted a resolution that created a new unit: the Continental Marines. The entire legislative body approved the resolution on November 10, 1775, the celebrated birthday of the US Marines. Robert Mullan (owner of Tun Tavern, the Philadelphia inn where the original resolution was drafted) was named a Marine Captain, and Samuel Nicholas (owner of another local tavern) was designated commandant of the Continental Marines.

By the time you read this, it will be Friday, November 11th, Veteran’s Day. I wrote this post three times; the first was a lengthy missive detailing the history of the US military. Too long. I wrote a second piece; still too long and too over-the-top.

I’m making the newest post much shorter, and it gets down to this: 652,000 + Americans have given up their lives for this country, with almost 1.5 million wounded. The United States is an honorable and good country, no matter what anyone says. And our soldier have been, are, and always will be the best of the best.

Without a strong military, without men and women willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, without secure borders, everything else we do is secondary and, truly, of little consequence. How quickly we seem to forget this, even on Veteran’s Day.

If you see a soldier today, walk up to them, shake their hand and thank them for their service. Go to Soldier’s Angels and support a young soldier in Iraq. And take a moment, if you will, to reflect on what it means to be an American — and ask yourself why it is that so many people, if we are such a bad country, still die trying to reach our shores.

Yes, God Bless America, and God Bless the American soldiers, for they keep us safe and secure.