TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR
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James Joyner | Sunday, December 21, 2003 |
Michele posts this at The Command Post:
Although the announcement wasn’t supposed to be made until later tonight, the word is out: Time’s Person of the Year is The American Soldier.They swept across Iraq and conquered it in 21 days. They stand guard on streets pot-holed with skepticism and rancor. They caught Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will, in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is TIME’s Person of the Year.
….To have pulled Saddam Hussein from his hole in the ground brings the possibility of pulling an entire country out of the dark. In an exhausting year when we’ve been witness to battles well beyond the battlefields–in the streets, in our homes, with our allies–to share good news felt like breaking a long fast, all the better since it came by surprise. And who delivered this gift, against all odds and risks? The same citizens who share the duty of living with, and dying for, a country’s most fateful decisions.
Interesting–and hard to argue with the sentiment. I’m always a bit dubious when the Man of the Year isn’t actually a single individual, but it would almost always be the sitting American president if they didn’t get a bit creative.
There is also precedent for this: Time’s Man of the Year for 1950 was The American Fighting-Man.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Sure beats "The Whistleblowers" from last year.
Our soldiers are especially deserving of this recognition (and then some), but when Time goes the way of "Anonymous ", it makes you wonder who was second in line.
Yikes, I got sanitized. That should read "Anonymous fill-in-the-blank-here"
I think they strain every year to be inventive. George W. Bush is the obvious choice, but Time almost always gives it to presidents no more than once per term. And this choice works for me, really, given the manifold operations underway right now.
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