Comments on: Universal Soldier

by: kStyle

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:35:39 +0000

Say it again, Y’ALL!

by: Larry Jones

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:26:42 +0000

Ron - Don’t know what to tell you. There’s a “Play” button on my screen, just to the right of the word “here.” Maybe it doesn’t appear in the RSS feed (Bloglines users). Anybody else having trouble with this?

by: Ron

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:19:15 +0000

I saw no “here” to click for the soundtrack. Is that some poetic image?

by: Larry Jones

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:40:51 +0000

Bill - A corollary to Jones’ Law #1 (Bullies always win) might be “The venal end up making policy.” I’m still working on it. But if it’s correct, then we can’t clean up the mess in Washington, or Beijing, Tehran, Moscow, London, etc.

Wren - Thanks for your thoughtful comment. My post was written out of frustration and a sense of powerlessness, but I don’t want to live my life that way. I want to believe that the world can change. Also, I hope you know that I don’t think most people join the military to become known as heroes.

kStyle and Narya - I can’t believe you guys did that. Stop your giggling and see me after class.

by: Wren

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:56:32 +0000

Young men and women join the military for a lot of reasons, but few do it to be a “hero.” I’m a veteran, and my reasons for joining up ran the whole gamut. I wanted to see other parts of the world while being paid for it, I wanted to test my skills and find my calling in life, I was an immature patriot and romantic idealist, and finally, I hoped to make my ex-Marine father proud of me. But joining up to be a “hero?” No. It never occurred to me.

Calling all of our military members “heroes” is a nefariously clever and underhanded way to gloss over the cold, hard fact that soldiers often end up maimed or dead as they fight under the cynical delusion that they’re defending their country. The war in Iraq is only the latest and most shameless example.

Like you, I remember the 60s and 70s bumper stickers and posters that said “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” and “What if the government gave billions to eduction and the military had to hold a bake sale?” or something along those lines. As a long-time idealist, I want those concepts to work. I want peace in our world, and peace for all the generations to come. I want to think that humankind is better than this, and that good is stronger than evil.

But also like you, I no longer believe it’s possible, Larry. My idealism is pretty tarnished. It seems that human nature is equally as violent as it is peaceful, and we’ll always face the specter of violent conflict and war. In my opinion, religion (and I don’t care which one) is almost always the root cause for conflict, and greed runs a close second. Can we take steps to do away with them? I don’t think so. Even unified, there is always a faction that won’t go along, rotting the ideals of the group from the inside out.

I want our soldiers out of Iraq. I don’t want to see another person on either side killed for Bush’s oily backers. I want the ones who lied and manipulated us into this war prosecuted for war crimes, and I want us all to learn the hard lessons we’ve been taught through our actions. But do I believe it will happen?

Painfully, sadly, I don’t.

by: Narya

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:01:32 +0000

Absolutely nothing.

by: kStyle

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:46:38 +0000

War, what is it good for?

by: Bill Stankus

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:27:47 +0000

During the years of the Vietnam War my mother often wore a label button that read: “I Didn’t Raise My Son To Be a Soldier.”

Not enough mothers seemed to agree.

As if most people really care about killed or damaged young soldiers and mangled vets. They volunteered, right?

Our so-called leaders have come close to perfecting the art of perpetual war - something for profiteering and something to distract the unwashed from the looting and butchery done in government.

The older I get the more I wonder, can we straighten out the mess in DC?