RD201812-201901

arrived and ferried them to a hospital.
Though I never learned who they
were or what they were doing, I was
90 percent sure that night, as I am
now, that they were coming out to
pick up the IED and use it later. The
other 10 percent of me sometimes
wonders. If I had shot, regardless of
who was in the vehicle, under the
rules of engagement I would have
been cleared legally. Ethically I be-
lieve I would have been cleared, too,
given the circumstances. Morally, I’m
not so sure. Morally, I believe we an-
swer to a higher power than rules of
engagement, or even the letter of the

law. Morally, I believe someday I’ll be

called to account for the things I’ve

done or neglected to do. Some days,

I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to do

that.

What I am sure of today in my early

30s—the same way I was sure of it on

that moonless March night when I was

21 and when I was a wide-eyed child

at my family dinner table taking in one

of life’s most important lessons—is

that once you pull the trigger, you own

it forever. Because the bullet never,

ever, comes back.

reddit.com (march 2018), copyright © 2018

by matt susko.

Inspirational Quotes (Updated for Modern Life)

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step

costs way too much gas money.”

lao-tzu

“If not us, who? If not now, when maybe after this next episode?”

john f. kennedy

“The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as

in what direction you are moving where we lie down to take a nap.”

oliver wendell holmes

“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as

somebody loves you delivers pizza to you.”

roald dahl

“Education costs money. But then so does ignorance boxed wine.

I know which one I’d prefer.”

sir claus moser

rk pendergrass for mcsweeneys.net

rd.com 103

Military Life Reader’s Digest