Metaphor for Iraq

Doctors were preparing to cut off Battle's ring to save as much of his finger as they could.

"But that would mean destroying my wedding ring," he said.

...With his approval, doctors severed his finger, but somehow in the chaos that followed, they lost his ring.

If the ring symbolizes the vow we have taken for Iraq, then the finger symbolizes all the troops and Iraqis who are maimed and killed to uphold that vow.

How symbolic that both the finger AND the ring were lost in the chaos.

And, lest a lesson be learned, predictably:

"We need to make more David Battles," said Daniel Pierce, the school's assistant head coach. "He is one amazing guy."