Doubts Grow as G.I.’s in Iraq Find Allies in Enemy Ranks

NY Times ^ | May 27, 2007 | MICHAEL KAMBER

[Caramelgal]

“Welcome to empire and the savage wars of peace.”

So? Rudyard Kipling was a poet and a big fan of Imperialism. I am neither. He was also a Brit. Need I remind you that Great Brittan could not sustain its great Empire but a lot of her young men died trying.

I’m not one to quote poetry and I find Kipling rather trite and tedious as a writer, but I do know a bit about history. The Roman Republic eventually gave way to the tyranny of the Imperialism and when Rome could no longer find among her own citizens enough willing, able bodied young men to serve and die in the Legions in all the various far flung outposts of The Great Empire and her citizens could no longer alone bear the expense of this vast Empire through taxation, Rome recruited non-Romans to serve in the Legions and granted citizenship to nearly anyone and everyone who wanted it, regardless of their allegiance to Rome if only to be able to collect taxes and secure the popularity of the current Emperor. If that sounds familiar it may be because we are doing much the same today.

Rome eventually collapsed under the weight of Empire and diluted culture and when she could no longer secure her borders, the Barbarians flooded in through the gates and the Empire fell.

At this same time I am finally and seriously securing the boarders make that borders, of the United States of America.

Then you are in favour of amnesty for illegal immigrants. :^)

LOL. There, I corrected my typo for you but I think you understood my point even if we disagree on the content.

I am not an Isolationist but I do not believe that The United States of America, this great Republic, this great land and her people benefit in trying to force Republican ideals and Constitutional government upon a foreign people who have no taste for it. I defer to George Washington’s farewell address and his warning to us about engaging in foreign entanglements that do not serve our best interests.

On this Memorial Day, I attended a Memorial Day parade and service in a small PA town in which my fourteen year old niece was given an award by the American Legion for her academic excellence, leadership, citizenship and patriotism. I was there for my niece but I was moved by the solemnity of the occasion and by the speech of an active duty Navy medical corpsman on leave, who told us how his mission was to help set up a “medical system in a remote part of Afghanistan” and when he talked about a fallen comrade who died in a rocket attack, he could hardly speak through his tears and then he stopped. Then a WWII vet came up and put his hand on this corpsman’s shoulder and the corpsman, after a deep breath was able to continue. I was moved to tears. Most of the rest of us left that service today to attend cookouts and complain about going back to work tomorrow but I thought only these two soldiers really understood what sacrifice is all about.

Before the ceremony, I walked through the cemetery and read the various headstones, many dating back to the early eighteen hundreds. Many of the graves were decorated by bronze medallions and flags indicating service in and often the supreme sacrifice in wars from the Civil War, Spanish American, WWI, WWII to Korea and Vietnam.

None of our brave men and women serving our county ever die in vain but I can and do sometimes question the politics behind war. You and I and our politicians can wax poetic about the glory of war all we want but most of us are far from harm’s way. I believe dying for one’s country and for one’s fellow is the noblest sacrifice but I don’t believe that dying in a “peace keeping and nation building mission” for a people who don’t share our values and never will is a senseless waste of our best and brightest.

[Chgogal]

How creative are you? Are you an idea man?

[Prokopton]

I take it your forte is NOT military history, but rather social feel-goodism...

What's your point? First you post quotes that basically say the truth cannot be told in wartime and then you quote Roosevelt that truth, during wartime, is more important than secrecy.

Are you schizoid or something?

Oh, and your little dig was childish.

[Prokopton]

Truman said our troops were going to Korea to fight a "police action" against "bandits."

Selling the Korean War as being a "police action" is another example of why we should never follow UN directives.

[Cyropaedia]

I said on other threads that this entire Alberto Gonzeles/ U.S.A. firings were a microcosm of practically everything that has gone wrong with this administration. Something that should have never been a scandal in the first place and could have been handled with relative ease was allowed snowball into a frickin’ three ring circus. It's like watching a golfer who has a six inch putt for the easy win and then reeling in disbelief as he commits a triple bogey and loses the tournament ( paraphrasing Charles Krauthammer ).

[syriacus]

Selling the Korean War as being a "police action" is another example of why we should never follow UN directives

Luckily for Truman's plans to get the UN involved in re-freeing Korea, Russia was boycotting the Security Council at that time.

[an amused spectator]

Oh, and your little dig was childish.

As I said, your forte is NOT military history (or history, for that matter): "then you quote Roosevelt that truth, during wartime, is more important than secrecy"

If Roosevelt had made any such quote shortly before the invasion of Normandy, our invasion force would have been massacred on the beaches. Why are you discussing these things, when you obviously do not have the intellectual tools to comprehend the discussion?

You're dismissed.

[Prokopton]

As I said, your forte is NOT military history (or history, for that matter): "then you quote Roosevelt that truth, during wartime, is more important than secrecy"

Sorry, I didn't really read the dates on your made up quote of Roosevelt. Without the dates the quote would have been quite believable. I suppose you were trying to make a point or be humorous, you succeeded at neither.

BTW, I never claimed to be a military historian and I was sucked in by your fake quote. However, your forte is not really military history either, rather it is being an ass on FR.

Good luck with that personality problem.

[an amused spectator]

Good luck with that personality problem.

Thanx, n00b. I often look to political neophytes like you for advice in these arenas.

Or not.

I always get those confused...