A foreigner's glimpse of the United States.......

While it seems to be very en vogue to take shots at our country because of the battles we currently fight, the United States is still seen as one of the greatest countries in the world by most.

I am a huge fan of George Will and his opinions. There's not a person that I identify with more than him from a political standpoint. I found this excerpt from a George Will speech that I thought I would pass on. If you would like to read the whole speech, send me an e-mail and I can forward it to you. It was just a bit too long to post in its entirety in the blog.


I want to read you something. This is a story told by a foreign diplomat who was in his own country overseas, and he had occasion to visit the United States Embassy in the capital of his country.

This is the story he tells:

I arrived a quarter to six, after official office hours, and was met by the Marine on guard at the entrance to the Chancery. He asked me if I would mind waiting while he lowered the two American flags at the embassy. What I witnessed over the next ten minutes so impressed me, that I am now lead to make this occurrence a part of any ongoing record of this distressing era.

The Marine was dressed in a uniform, which was spotless and neat, he walked with a measured tread from the entrance of the Chancery to the stainless steel flagpole before the Embassy and, almost reverently, lowered the flag to the level of his reach where he began to fold it in a military fashion. He then released the flag from the clasp attached to it, stepped back from the pole, and made an about face and carried the flag between his hands, one above, one below, and placed it securely on a stand before the Chancery. He then marched over to the second flagpole and repeated the same lonesome ceremony.

After completing his task, he apologized for the delay, out of pure courtesy, as nothing less than incapacity would have prevented him from completing that task, the simplicity of which made the might, the power and the glory of the United States of America stand forth in a way that a mighty wave of a military aircraft or the passage of a super carrier, or a parade of ten thousand men and women, could never have made manifest. One day it is my hope to visit one of our embassies in a far away place and to see a soldier fold our flag and turn to a stranger and say, "I am sorry for the delay, sir. I had to honor my country."