Posted on 08/22/2015 7:51:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
LITTLE ROCK -- As the country observed the 70th anniversary of V-J Day, a new generation may have to be reminded what V-J stands for -- Victory Over Japan -- and all it took. The years of personal sacrifices and national unity, the courage and perseverance ... all the costs of war to the living and the dead. Arkansas's governor, Asa Hutchinson, presided over this year's observance of the anniversary at the state Capitol, and looked back at a different time when war united instead of dividing us:
"That is what was unique about World War II," the governor told the crowd. "Our whole nation mobilized behind our men and women in service. You mobilized, you engaged, you did your duty, and the result was freedom. The result was victory."
Granted, the governor may have been indulging in some exaggeration. For the country also had its share of slackers, draft dodgers, black marketeers and shady types who made a killing on their government contracts -- at least till a no-nonsense senator from Missouri named Harry Truman (the Charles Grassley of his time) began investigating and exposing them. There were few uglier names back then than war profiteer. And let's not forget those unreconstructed isolationists who spoke of Roosevelt's War and accused FDR of getting us into it for his own purposes.
But in general the country was indeed united as all pulled together to achieve victory, a word that could be used without qualification or embarrassment in those days before UN police actions and Overseas Contingency Operations took the place of wars with stated goals and consistent policies.
To quote one veteran at the state Capitol on Saturday, Evelyn Usrey, now 90, "We didn't have a lot of things because it was all going to the war effort. We had ration books. The meat was rationed. We didn't have gas money, so we walked everywhere. No one seemed to mind. That's just the way it was. You accepted it."
Evelyn Usrey served first as a supply officer at a Navy shipyard in Maine, then as a Navy medic. Even as Gov. Hutchinson's father was doing his service in the Aleutians.
In those days, it was taken for granted all would serve. Now just some do, for the armed forces are composed only of volunteers. Which means only some have the experience of being both citizens and soldiers in their lifetimes -- an unwholesome division that democracies have avoided since democracy itself was invented in ancient Greece.
The Athenians recognized that in a true democracy all must be citizens and soldiers. Unless all serve, and these days that includes women, a large segment of the country will have no experience with military service, discipline or ideals. Which is why, even though the professionalism of an all-volunteer force is welcome and needs to be preserved, the idea that all of us will serve in uniform at one time or another needs to be revived. So we don't become two nations, one that has known military service and one that never has.
No, the concept of universal military service -- the draft -- may never be popular, understandably enough. But it is necessary for the health of this republic or any other. Or as Pericles put it in his great oration, "the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have made her ... none of these men allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. ... Therefore, having judged that to be happy means to be free, and to be free means to be brave, do not shy away from the risks of war."
The generation that fought and won the Second World War would have understood what Pericles meant. Do we now?
Two nations... Producers and Parasites.
The generation who fought WWII would never lower themselves to expect women to pretend to be men...to fight in combat as less effective soldiers who would endanger the whole.
That generation would not have us fight to support the slaughter of babies which is abortion and Planned Parenthood.
That generation would also thought it unthinkable to force people to pretend disgusting perverted sex acts between men and men or women and women were the equal to marriage.
That generation is mostly gone now, and, unless the evils above are banned in this country....we cannot expect it to be unified as in WWII again supporting liberty and justice—since with those things above we do not have liberty and justice.
Assault forces Omaha Beach = 100% white. Assault forces Tarawa, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa = 100% white.
The united nation you write about is dead and gone.
So what? The United States of America (see the name itself) is a Republic, not a democracy.
Yep we are two nations in many ways, not just in the split between those who have experienced military service and those who have not.
There is a major liberal/conservative split based on people having different values.
There are splits along generational lines too. You hear about employers who are frustrated with younger workers lack of the “soft skills” or “work ethic”, for example. They can’t always count on some younger ones to show up for work on time, or to do what they are told at work without endless naval gazing about why they are being asked to do something a certain way, etc. This attitude is rarer among older workers, to the extent that some employers actually prefer older more mature employees.
And some liberals bitch about the fact that we had segregation in the armed forces back in those days.
Yes we are a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
it’s a common misconception that we are a democracy.
Regarding ‘all white’ — In WWII, there was no separate (and false) “Hispanic” race category. the only racial categories for official Army records were White and Colored (Negro). Thus one found. The proof for this in the “Strength of the Army” reports that were published quarterly beginning in 1941. One can trace the “racial categorization” of the Army in these reports from 1941 until the late 1990s, when the paper reports were stopped and replaced by computerized reports that are hard to find.
The 17th amendment killed the original constitutional republic.
Back in 1968, I was told by an old Sgt that the reason for desegregation of the military was...(ready for this?) the Koreans and Chinese learned if they hit a colored troop holding a position, that troop would cave every time.
By desegregating the troops, and placing the colored troops in white units, they were less likely to cave.
True or not, I don’t know.
Not true.
My grandfather hit the beach at Okinawa. He was native American. He was not the only one.
I don’t know where you got that statistic.
I'm glad my son will not follow 8 uncles, grandfather and father into the armed services. Religion is the foundation of honor when you really think about it. The republic has been degraded to an oligarchy where the bureaucracies, parties and rich decided what are the paths to being the ruling president.
Open your eyes and look around. Sacrifice for the presidency or congress. Hahahahahahaha. To lay your life or your son's life down to insure that the IRS/EPA/TSA/Welfare recipients ....etc bureaucrats can live off your hard earned dollars and the yoke of taxes so they can buy crap they don't need to impress people they don't like. Not me or mine.
After the next several elections we will see what allowing 30 million illegal aliens without education or civics about the fact that we were a republic and don't sit around waiting for the government to hand us goodies. But were freemen that took responsibility and freedom for granted and allowed the dream to die.
You can go nowhere, you and I, our families and future generations are heading towards a second dark age. I'm trying to pass on love of God, love of learning and strong work ethics in the hope that will help them in the future. Money, land, stuff..... can and will be possessed at the will of the state. For any interested there are a couple of great podcasts for free that make great listening. Emperors of Rome and The history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Apologies to you and your ancestor.
America in the 1940s was mostly “white” and “black”. My 100% stat is overstated. It should be corrected to 99.99% white.
The point about the unity of the nation in the 1940s stands.
Absolutely, and for the Athenians as well. In fact IIRC they were the very first Republic:
The Athenians recognized that in a true democracy all must be citizens and soldiers.
Our Republic was set up so that the people in each state would, according to that state's norms, and within the limits imposed by the Constitution, delegate to their elected representatives the authority to make and uphold laws. This was supposed to be deliberative, and somewhat difficult. It remains so.
Well, the America of the 1940s was a country worthy of immense personal sacrifice. A country and a people that was worth putting one’s life and fortune on the line for. It was that way throughout most of the nation’s history.
America-2015? Open-borders; a corrupt Uniparty government; a putrid, deviant, faggoty culture; a populace of ferals existing off the government teat; a populace of tatted-up dopehead wastrels; a populace that voted for a Marxist community organizer for president; why would I sacrifice anything for such a country? Put my life on the line for a country that has become so grotesquely degenerate that it now legally equates two perverted homos as the same as a husband-and-wife? Like hell.
Spot on, I agree 1000%
This is supposedly a quote from Alexander Tyler:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from
the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury,
with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose
fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning
of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these
nations always progressed through the following sequence:
>
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage “
Your comment is incorrect. The forces were all 100% American. The ideals that united our nation had nothing to do with race.
Thank you for posting that quote. It is time for hard work, fervent prayer and prudent voting.
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