Molon Labe (mo-lone lah-veh), translated to mean, "Come and Get Them."
Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn, who perished in Afghanistan over the weekend, had these two words tatoo'ed on his left arm. The same arm that was cradling his infant daughter, as shown in a photo posted today on The Blaze.
Excerpted text from several Molon Labe sites (bold and underlining are my emphasis): Molon Labe. Two little words. With these two words, two concepts were verbalized that have lived for nearly two and a half Millennia. They signify and characterize both the heart of the Warrior, and the indomitable spirit of mankind.
In 480 B.C. the forces of the Persian Empire under King Xerxes, numbering, according to Herodotus, two million men, bridged the Hellespont and marched in their myriads to invade and enslave Greece.
King Leonidas of Sparta and another Greek city-state agreed to help stop the invading Persians, and marched with 300 hand-picked troops to Thermopylae on the north coast of Greece. Thermopylae was the best of three possible defensive areas in which Xerxes' invading army had to advance. This mountain gap along the coast was about 60 feet wide, and was the best location for a blocking action. The confines between mountains and sea were so narrow that the Persian multitudes and their cavalry would be at least partially neutralized. Since the 300 knew they were going to die fighting against overwhelming forces the first requirement was that each man had to have a son left behind.
When Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the huge Persian army and demanded that the Spartans lay down their arms. Leonidas told Xerxes "MOLON LABE", or "Come And Get Them."
After days of fighting and having killed countless numbers of Xerxes' elite troops, they were finally overrun after being betrayed by a traitor who showed the enemy another pass behind the defenders.
King Leonidas, his Spartans and their Thespian allies died to the last man. Xerxes marched on and destroyed Athens. The standard of valor set by this sacrifice inspired the Greeks to rally and, in that fall and spring, defeat the Persians at Salamis and Plataea and preserve the beginnings of Western democracy and freedom from perishing in the cradle.
Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn, his fellow SEALs and everyone on that helicopter were also betrayed.
The traitors who betrayed our SEALs, who aided and abetted their enemies, are legion: the current administration, senior military leaders and their civilian counterparts, and of course, the press.
The amount of information released during and after the Osama bin Laden raid was breathtaking in scope and criminal in content, if not intent. And with this administration, intent is always in question.
Every person who spoke "on condition of anonymity," or "off the record," or "on background," who provided details as thinly veiled speculation; and our illustrious Vice President who publicly outed SEAL Team Six as the unit responsible for killing bin Laden during his remarks at a formal event at Washington's Ritz Carlton Hotel...
... if the helicopter was targeted in retaliation for bin Laden's death, then EVERYONE who provided information about the raid are complicit in the death of Aaron Vaughn and his fellow SEALs and Special Forces members. And they are responsible for the elevated threat against all SEAL team members and their families.
Our service members were betrayed by a traitor as surely as were Leonidas and The 300.