Greater love has no man than this...

President Obama has honoured slain Afghan optometrist Tom Little by presenting his wife with the Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House.

Dr Little was an optometrist who served Afghanistan with his wife Libby for 30 years, as part of the International Assistance Mission. 

Taleban, possibly from Pakistan according to the one survivor who did not recognize the dialect, shot him in cold blood on 5 August, along with nine colleagues returning from an eye camp in remote Badakshan.  The motive is still unknown.  He was 61.

President Obama quoted from the gospel of John 15:13: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ before presenting the award to Libby Little.

Watch the ceremony here (10.53 minutes) and here (30.45).

Jenny Taylor writes:  ‘A big-hearted, gentle man much loved by Afghans, Little was controversial in the mission for refusing to send his children home, despite the war, even after he was pistol-whipped by Mujahedin fighters.  He later returned to the village where it happened, and drank tea with the men.

‘It was my immense privilege to have met Tom.  Words cannot express the enormity of this crime, but nonetheless I felt Tom lived reconciled to a martyr’s death, should it happen that way.

‘He loved the Afghan people with all his heart, and that love was reciprocated.  What happened was out of character for a people whose code of honour he understood and respected.  If anything, he was bitter against those who perpetrated war games against this vulnerable culture.  He was without doubt one of the finest people I ever met, and his and Libby’s sacrifice tells the story of the extremity of love.’