Posted on 03/30/2003 1:47:30 PM PST by Lando Lincoln
HISTORY
Life during wartime.
There’s nothing I can say about the parade of still pictures, the faces on the television – except, perhaps, that they all seemed to share a fierce pride in their eyes, photographed for the first time in their Marine Dress Blues. Surely their families are proud of them. I certainly am, and I never got to know any of them. And now, I never will.
Names scroll in little yellow letters across the bottom of our glowing screens: Sergeants, and Captains, and Privates. These men have died for us. More will follow. You may be against this war, but even if you are, the fact remains: these kids died for all of us. We asked them to go, and they went.
All across this nation -- here and there, sparkling across the map like fireflies on a summer night – sedans are slowly rolling to a stop outside of small, modest homes. Men in uniform emerge, straighten their tunics, and walk slowly up driveways. Doorbells are rung. Maybe here and there smiles will evaporate in shock and surprise as doors are opened, but more likely the face will be one full of stunned realization that the very worst thing in the whole world has happened. And children will be sent to their rooms. And the men will speak in somber, respectful tones. And sons and mothers and fathers and wives will be told that the one thing they love more than anything in this world has been taken away from them, that their sons and daughters will not be coming home, that their fathers or mothers have gone away and will never come back, not ever.
Why do we do this? What could possibly be worth this?
(Excerpt) Read more at ejectejecteject.com ...
So when I stood on Little Round Top and walked down that little hill for the last time that day, I saw more than dead and dying men littering the ground. I saw two nations where today there is one. I saw a Second Civil War, perhaps in 1909, or 1913, for these two countries would never peacefully co-exist – not with people as proud and energetic as we. I saw not seven thousand dead at Cold Harbor, but 70,000 cut down in an hour by machine guns in the Battle of Tallahassee, saw the gas attacks along the Cleveland Trenches that left half a million dead and dying. I saw, perhaps, the dimmest outlines of a Third American War, fought perhaps in ’34 or ’37 with millions of civilians killed in great air raids over Washington and Richmond. Of course, these millions never died. They lived long and full lives, most of them – and had children, namely us. They didn’t die, these millions, because the men at Cold Harbor and The Angle and Little Round Top did.
I got chills reading this.
When I read the excerpt from the media's treatment of Lincoln, I first thought it was some CNN hack spewing Bush-hatred. Until I found out it was directed at President Lincoln, of course. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This war is an abject and utter failure. What everyone thought would be a quick, decisive victory has turned into an embarrassing series of reversals. The enemy, -- a ragtag, badly-fed collection of hotheads and fanatics – has failed to be shocked and awed by the most magnificent military machine ever fielded. Their dogged resistance has shown us the futility of the idea that a nation of millions could ever be subjugated and administered, no matter what obscene price we are willing to pay in blood and money.
The President of the United States is a buffoon, an idiot, a man barely able to speak the English language. His vice president is a little-seen, widely despised enigma and his chief military advisor a wild-eyed warmonger. Only his Secretary of State offers any hope of redemption, for he at least is a reasonable, well-educated man, a man most thought would have made a far, far better choice for Chief Executive.
We must face the fact that we had no business forcing this unjust war on a people who simply want to be left alone. It has damaged our international relationships beyond any measure, and has proven to be illegal, immoral and nothing less than a monumental mistake that will take generations to rectify. We can never hope to subdue and remake an entire nation of millions. All we will do is alienate them further. So we must bring this war to an immediate end, and make a solemn promise to history that we will never launch another war of aggression and preemption again, so help us God.
I stopped reading there.
When the present day media and the doom and gloom crowd of the left have written off the abilities of our military, I am confident we will see many Joshua Chamberlains standing tall. Personally, I don't see the U.S. Military finding themselves in such dire straits and the courage displayed by our military won't appear as glorious as it should.
Because the press and the left were under an impression that this was going to be a cake walk, the coalition will face criticism no matter what they do now. Just remember this fact; From the Democrat's point of view this is strictly political, it has always been and always will be. This talk of "supporting the troops" is just a convenient port in a political storm. Politics in Washington is a game that the Democrats desperately want to win. The fact that they belong to the Democartic Party after the hell Bill Clinton put this country through is proof enough for me.
Are the paragraphs I cited the result of a hacker?
Please read the comments on the thread. If this weren't as incredible as I suggest, on this forum, you would not have the types of comments present here.
Please, please, stay with it. It is so difficult to find these types of commentary. If I am wrong, tell me and I will go away peacefully.
BTW, you are not the first to tune out early!!
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