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gwydion"Celebrate" always feels like the wrong word for Memorial day to me. What is there to celebrate about so much death after all? Remembering, that I do. here we are a decade in, and people are still being asked to risk maiming or death to make old rich men in power richer.
To me supporting the troops means only putting them in harms way when the cause is worthy and the mission clear. it means giving them body armour, and well armored transports, and sufficient supplies. It means a good support system, access to quality medical care when they come home, and real help adjusting and dealing with all the crap they have suffered in our name. It means the GI Bill. It means considering every drop of blood valuable.
Ten years. Damn.
I think about WWI a lot at Memorial Day. It's the war most people forget. It's the war that took my mother's Uncle Billy's leg and ruined his lungs. Such horrific carnage and sacrifice to no good purpose really. Rich old men of power sat far back from the lines and ordered wave after wave of young men to die horribly, and those men went. A generation of young men were ground to hamburger because the men making the decisions were using a hundred year old+ tactics in an era of machine guns, poison gas, and flame throwers.
People liken Iraq and Afghanistan to Vietnam, and I think of that too, but I also think of WWI. It seems like we've learned nothing from either one and I suspect we're going to learn nothing from these either. We send young women and men off to horror, and we still really can't say what it's for.
I honor those who've sacrificed, and at the same time I wish we'd stop demanding it frivolously.
As always, on these occasions, I give you And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFjToKuZQM
To me supporting the troops means only putting them in harms way when the cause is worthy and the mission clear. it means giving them body armour, and well armored transports, and sufficient supplies. It means a good support system, access to quality medical care when they come home, and real help adjusting and dealing with all the crap they have suffered in our name. It means the GI Bill. It means considering every drop of blood valuable.
Ten years. Damn.
I think about WWI a lot at Memorial Day. It's the war most people forget. It's the war that took my mother's Uncle Billy's leg and ruined his lungs. Such horrific carnage and sacrifice to no good purpose really. Rich old men of power sat far back from the lines and ordered wave after wave of young men to die horribly, and those men went. A generation of young men were ground to hamburger because the men making the decisions were using a hundred year old+ tactics in an era of machine guns, poison gas, and flame throwers.
People liken Iraq and Afghanistan to Vietnam, and I think of that too, but I also think of WWI. It seems like we've learned nothing from either one and I suspect we're going to learn nothing from these either. We send young women and men off to horror, and we still really can't say what it's for.
I honor those who've sacrificed, and at the same time I wish we'd stop demanding it frivolously.
As always, on these occasions, I give you And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFjToKuZQM