Anti-war generation watches its children go to war

Aberdeen News ^ | 2/8/05 | Meg Kissinger

[qam1]

Mostly about the younger Gen-Y, But this article is could also be about many Gen-Xers

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Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

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[pissant]

Very few of the kids from the anti-war crowd are in the military. Thank goodness.

[Old Sarge]

"These kids today, they are on a mission. I think they're more like their grandparents than their parents. They remind me of soldiers who went in right after Pearl Harbor. They are very directed, very clear in their focus and what their obligation is to their country. We had peace and love and all of that. These kids have Sept. 11. It did something to them."

It seems that class and maturity skipped a generation.

[laweeks]

"Anti-war generation watches its children go to war"

I'm sick of my generation being called the "Anti-War" generation. The morons who entertained the news cameras way back then were few and far between, but they got all the publicity. Millions of my generation were clean cut, had jobs, got drafted, never took drugs, cut our hair, washed, went to church, and raised our children to be moral contributing members of our country. A few thousand scum-bags got all the press. I'm tired of it. My generation was NOT anti-war; we were very patriotic.

Like one of our local Clevealnd news dudes (Gib Shanley) used to say immediately after the anchors and anchorettes gushed and gooed over the "ten thousand" protester who might have shown up at some pot-smoking anti-war demo, "Yes, but over 170 million Americans DID NOT protest."

[qam1]

Very few of the kids from the anti-war crowd are in the military. Thank goodness.

See

Anti-war woman's trip to see son serving in Iraq has surprises for both

What's a peacenik to do when son joins Army?

[Texas_Jarhead]

This caught my eye,

"Jeramy Ringwolski, 18, joined the Marines in his senior year in high school, wanting to serve his country and see the world. He says his parents were skeptical at first.

"They didn't know if I knew what I was getting myself into," he says. Now in basic training in Mississippi, Ringwolski says he is excited about the possibility of being shipped out to Iraq. "

Did the Corps open a MCRD in Mississippi and I missed it or what?

[Texas_Jarhead]

good post

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: These kids have Sept. 11. It did something to them."

And that is a healthy reaction. Why didn't their folks react the same way?

[xkaydet65]

It seems that class and maturity skipped a generation....

Not really. Two and a half million boomers served in Vietnam. 58,000 never came home. Another three or four million served in the Armed Forces elswhere. Actually, quite a bit more than today. The military was much larger. Those who served in the period of Vietnam need not take a back seat to their children in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all serve their country. They all will return with their honor and class.

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: My generation was NOT anti-war; we were very patriotic.

With all due respect, percentage wise, the Baby Boomers had an unbelievably large faction of neer do wells. Perhaps not where you grew up, but in the same areas that are "blue" voting areas today, it was like a nightmare. I was barely old enough to understand what all the "big kids" were up to at the time, but the whole thing was quite wierd to me. Sorry if this offends you, but that's how I saw it.

[Old Sarge]

Hmm. Good perspective.

I'm on the cusp between Boomer and Xer - my troops are my kids, chronologically. This hunting trip is going to be interesting.

[GVnana]

Not the first time parents have something to learn from their children.

I'll never forget, just a few months after 9/11 FOX had a report on new recruits in the Army. There's this kid fresh out of high school, still in boot camp saying, "To my brothers in the Special Forces, I'm coming as fast as I can."

[Psycho_Bunny]

Ya.....I've always wondered that about my parents generation: why are they the "Anti-War Generation?".  My father was attending Berkeley during the "Freedom of Speech" movement.  He wasn't the only one there who thought it was "a bunch of bologna" (strong words coming from my Focus On the Family/missionary father). 

Calling them the "Anti War Generation" is pretty disingenuous and agenda-motivated:  the name should not frame the minority.

[Fiddlstix]

Click the Pic

[Larry Lucido]

"America was losing or had lost in Vietnam"

I beg to differ.

[phoenix0468]

"...We had peace and love and all of that. These kids have Sept. 11. It did something to them."

Yes, it's a little something we like to call their come upins. And they are getting it right now in that "Triangle of Death" where the combat casualty ratio of ours to theirs is something on the level of 100 to 1. Especially after we hammered their camel ridin' asses out of Falluhja. I got a lot of silly looks when I joined the guard from my friends, and that was back in '98. Needless to say, they weren't my friends for very much longer.

[phoenix0468]

I beg to set the record straight. Ho Chi Min himself said that they were on the verge of suing for peace when a certain Navy Leiutenant decided to lie in front of Congress, and charge American Soldiers with war crimes. He said the subsequent backlash, and propaganda locomotive it created was the reason they were able to push the U.S. out of South Vietnam. The other fact is that we won more than 80% of the battles that were faught in Vietnam. The NVA could retreat behind the 38th and regroup; we didn't have that luxery.

So, in retrospect, thanks a whole lot HoChiMin Kerry and Hanoi Jane Fonda for selling out your own people to a bunch of communists.

[phoenix0468]

the 100 to 1 is in our favor of course.

[phoenix0468]

I agree, especially when so many (something on the level of 2 million over the entire course of the war) were sent to fight there. Another couple of million served during the Vietnam era but never were sent. It is unfortunate that the actual minority of that aged population garnered so much attention. And that they were allowed to disrespect men and women in uniform the way they did.