HONEST--CROSS MY HEART!
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Posted on 04/11/2003 6:51:21 AM PDT by DGallandro
War is when two groups of people disagree enough to kill.
War can happen for any number of reasons, whether it is for greater natural resource (an underlying motive for many wars, whether state or unstated), property or land, to stop an aggressive activity, or to enforce a principle.
But for whatever reason, one thing in War is constant.
People die.
Their lives are ended. Snuffed out, extinguished. People with hopes and dreams and personalities, just like you and me. People who throw up on airplanes. People who like the color purple. People who work hard to make a living.
War kills them, usually indiscriminantly.
It is a terrible taker of human life, this phenomenon we call War.
A good many people have asked the obvious question: "What good is War?"
A song was written with the lyrics, "What's it good for, absolutely nothin'"
Another song was written, "I ain't marchin' anymore."
These and other social indicators are blatant testimony that we as Americans have forgotten the purpose of War.
War is, simply put, to enforce the edicts of our country's government with force. Nothing more, nothing less.
Corrupt or not, like it or not, our country's government is the body politic that we the people have elected to make decisions for us. Therefore, right or wrong, our country IS our government. Think about this the next time you get all apathetic at the voting booth, not knowing a damn thing about the views of the candidates you're about to put in a position to decide when to send our boys over to die.
I don't know about you, but I'm all for putting combat veterans in positions of power. Not because they're great leaders, or because they've been "blooded"....
But because they have seen the horrors of war close up. They have watched friends die most horribly, right next to them, knowing that the only reason it was their friend and not THEM was for the grace of God, or whatever deity they worship, or sheer chance if you prefer, and nothing else.
From a groundpounder's point of view, War is a carnage machine, chewing up soldiers of good young men and turning them into corpses to be shipped home on the Quartermaster's Supply Chopper.
Such an awful sacrifice of human life.
WHY?
It is my firm contention that this generation cannot effectively answer that question. In fact, it is my contention that the last generation couldn't either, by and large. In this day and age of "the value of human life," many folks place it so high in their values that they cannot fathom a reason for sacrificing it for anything or anyone.
And such is the greatest tragedy of the "Me" generation. Such is the tragedy of buying into the "end times" theory...where you honestly believe that you are close to the last generation, and there is no legacy that you will be passing on anyway, so enjoy it while you can because you won't care after you're dead.
It is these people who will die, their remains will be disposed of, and then forgotten for all eternity. They have done nothing, they have been nothing, they will BE nothing. Their legacy is that they have gloriously become wormfood, leaving not a trace that they even existed.
Today's selfish me-me-me mentality seems to only flourish in a free society that has had a century or so to mature. We've had it so easy for so long, the hardships of the existence of the rest of the world are downright alien to us.
Sure, we can watch movies with torture and death in them, but nobody feels like it could ever really happen to them. These are the same idiots who say "What do I need a gun for? That'll never happen to me because I dont (insert supposedly dangerous or hazardous activity here)". They are rationalizing that which they know nothing about. Many victims of violent crime had no clue it was coming because they had no frame of reference. Survivors of violent crime lose this clueless innocence rather quickly, their dream world shattered by the cold harshness of reality.
War is a cold harshness of reality. It is that governments will act with impunity unless stopped or curtailed. Even in our own United States, our police forces overstep their boundaries. Our government agencies do things we think only other countries' governments do. People disappear. Murder is an accepted political tool, to be used by the petty-minded bureaucrats at all levels.
Now, keep in mind we try to keep this sort of thing in check with something we call the Constitution of the United States, which clearly (or not so clearly , as people try to misinterpret it in order to circumvent it) prohibits such abuses.
It still happens.
And that's here.
It is far worse in other countries, where the governments don't even pay lip service to justice or freedom. Power comes from the barrel of a gun and those in power eliminate their opponents blatantly, because they can.
That kind of behavior goes against our principles as a nation.
So our brave young men and women volunteer to be our nation's strong arm, to put an end to this violation of our principles.
Is it right? Ask the murdered. Ask their families. Ask the ones who live in fear.
Is it just? If you ask the enemy they will always say no, yet they continue with their activities.
Yes, "going to war on principle" seems silly when taken out of context. But when the principle is the fact that we don't condone homicide, either individually or en masse, as a political tool, then it makes a little more sense.
But wait, isn't that hypocritical?
Damn right it is. The only difference between them and us is the matter of degree.
But it is still a difference.
It is up to our elected representatives to decide what principles are worth killing for. THAT is why I condone combat veterans in elected positions...because they know firsthand what kind of price is paid for that principle. Not some chair-bound paper-pushing pudgy-cheeked drunk who makes pretty speeches that sound good to the uneducated masses until put into practice with real people.
Pay attention. People are dying. Our children. Our families. Our fathers, mothers, husbands and wives, are PUTTING THEIR LIVES IN DANGER.
It is YOUR duty to understand why they believe so strongly in something that they are willing to risk their lives for it. If you are family, then you understand it...they are defending the family, the collective Family that is the United States. We are bound by blood. Not by the blood of our familial lines...but by the blood shed on the battlefield.
Fighting for our principles.
So whether you agree or disagree with the politics...remember that our soldiers have volunteered to put their lives on the line, to risk dying and never coming back, for what they, and you, believe in.
It is your duty to know what that is. And if you disagree with what they're dying for, it is up to YOU to change the body politic, replacing the bureaucrats with people who will agree with you.
But that's what POLITICS is all about...and it's messy.
War is messy too.
The hippies of the sixties who spit on the soldiers coming home from Vietnam...burn that image into your brain. Burn the cries of "baby-killer" into your mind. I'd be willing to bet that more than a few of you WERE those people.
NOW how do you feel?
Do you realize that many of those young men were CONSCRIPTS (drafted)? Not even volunteering to fight in a thoroughly unpopular war?
And we, their family, treated them like dung.
Those who spit on soldiers, who disrespect and dishonor them, do not deserve what little freedom we have.
Those who dishonor their memories, who deface graves or wonder why the Tomb of the Unknowns should fund an around-the-clock honor guard of the highest discipline, should grab a clue.
These men and women died for you. They're not great prophets or religious leaders. They are people with honor (there's an alien concept!) and principle, who are willing to practice what they preach.
In a time fraught with BLATANT HYPOCRACY, you should be cherishing these folks.
It is still frightfully easy for an elected leader to be a hypocrite. But at least a combat veteran will give the lives of those in his care proper due, having been there, than those who have never felt the grim, thousand-yard-stare inducing horror of War.
"...but look at all we've won with a Saber and a Gun. Tell me is it worth it all?"
In my opinon, yes. We have not thrown people's lives away needlessly. Sometimes we have fought for our own benefit, and sometimes to the benefit of our friends, and not directly ourselves. Is this wrong? Is it wrong to stand up for a friend who cannot stand up for himself?
If your principles say you follow your word, and you give your word to protect a friend...then you DO it.
So all this drivel about "well, we weren't attacked, I can't imagine what we're doing sending our soldiers over to die in something that isn't our business..."
It IS our business. We made it our business in the diplomatic phase. You know, that phase nobody wanted to end?
"More diplomacy is what is needed here. Not force."
Yeah? Bull.
There is a time for diplomacy. It is up to the leadership when to decide that that time has past, and then act decisively. The time for diplomacy ended when our leadership realized that the enemy was certain that we would continue to behave as NATO has for decades: "No Action, Talk Only." And he continued doing what he was doing. I'd say diplomacy was about worthless at that point.
And then we have War.
This is not "My country right or wrong." It is "My country, like my family, honors its commitments, even if it was another family member, not me, who MADE these commitments, it is I who will honor them."
Honor your commitments. Love your family. When your soldier comes home, love him or her too. They volunteered to pay a debt incurred by our government.
A debt in blood.
THAT is what war is.
Or the influence of a wartime economy?
DG
No it is not.
What to do about our corrupt government after the war is over?
Step 1) Force it to close our borders and institute airtight border control. Unless and until this happens, Bush is so much hot air when it comes to "fighting terrorism."
And what is "hypocracy"?
"C" for now...turn in this draft with your next effort.
Hypocracy: The act of saying one thing, and doing another, usually publicly and with opposite effect of stated intent.
I thought the clear thesis was a dumbed-down definition of War, as it seems our liberal bretheren have no concept of what it is, or why we sacrifice so much to it.
A "C"??
Ouch. Must drink more coffee. DG
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