For Every Death, A Hole in the World
Julia Mathes, the widow of Army Specialist Marcus Mathes, drapes herself over his casket at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. His body was flown in for his funeral and burial. (Photo - Christine Delessio)
This is something I wrote for Memorial Day 2005 and I run it every year:
Soldiers are not chunks of identical clay; each of them has a story, their own reasons for being caught in a war.
Brave? Maybe - sometimes, under some conditions. Scared, mostly. The younger they are, the more likely their presence had to do with restlessness, cockiness. The need to be part of a winning team, the desire to even a score. Kick ass, take names. Kill them all, let God sort them out.
The older they are, the more realistic they are. This was a steady paycheck, or a way to supplement the one they already had. When they join, it's with their eyes on the future benefit. When they're in the middle of a war, they think only of surviving the next five minutes. Please, God, please. Let me see my family again.
And when they die in the war, each death leaves a hole in the world. It's important to remember that, to not see them as a monolithic casualty list or as an acceptable loss.
No loss is acceptable. Ask the parents, the spouses, the children. They try. They tell themselves stories of nobility, sacrifice, a greater cause. They cover it up with the ritual rhetoric. But deep down, they must wonder.
Here is how to count the cost: In high school graduation pictures that will never be replaced with wedding pictures. In wedding rings that will never be worn smooth by years. By the daughters who will walk down the aisle with an uncle or brother instead of Dad. By the sons who will find themselves angry and lost, not understanding why. The children who will hear about their mother's eyes, their father's chin but won't ever see themselves reflected in that face.
By the parents who now understand the quiet obscenity of outliving their own children.
Each and every one of these deaths left a hole in the world. That is why we count them.
They mattered.
.
If you sign up for swiming, there are very high chances that you'll get water in your eardrums.
Just as many chances there are for getting killed when signing up for WAR.
Soldiers know what war is about. Soldiers-to-be might want to research a bit before putting their life -and the well being of their families and loved ones- as collateral for whatever the benefits they may be receiving or going to receive on account of putting up the cannon flesh for someone else's war.
Don't go to the army. You may be able to keep your life.
They sign up for the military. Politicians put them in wars. Conservative politicians put them in illegal wars.
And some peoples only option is the military. Have you checked out the unemployment rate. What do suggest they do, be homeless so you can attack them. Steal, gangbang? Not everyone in this country has the luxury of a education and a $50,000 a year job.
is intended to be a factual statement
military recruiters target poor neighborhoods and troll low-income shopping malls. The fewer options people have, the more palatable joining the military becomes--even in a time of war.
*
I've never seen change without a fire
1. Politicians and business interests create a conflict.
2. Media fans the flames of the public opinion
3. Lower and middle class kids rally around the flag
4. War profiteers reap HUGE profits
5. Mother bury their sons, sometimes it's the only good thing they ever had in their lives.
6. Father's deify their lost sons...he gave his life for his country
I find it hard to salute those who have died in the corporate sponsored wars of aggression. The feeling is pity not homage.
I am a veteran as well. I did unspeakable things to the good people of Central America in the name of Ronald Reagan and "freedom".
Honor is a word created by aristocrats so they could kill each other and peasants legally.
Well said.
The media and politicians have made Reagan a saint, but in reality, he was the worst kind of criminal. One who supported death squads killing peasants. THE WORST.
In germany.Said they were victims of the war as anyone else was.
Of course his masters set him straight and he had to do some apologizing
But it was the thought that counts,Right?
Excellent.
Bruce Cockburn - If I had a rocket launcher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7vCww3j2-w
Thank you for posting Leadership. I'm glad someone learned spoke regarding the real situation these men and women will be asked to die for. Often, you are the enemy.
It's a system for making money and breaking down countries. They (banks and huge corps) are building an empire and the US will do the dying and killing for them.
'The devil crept into Heaven, God overslept on the 7th, the New World Order was born on Sept 11th.' - Immortal Technique
There is obviously a risk in enrollment. But it is the needless loss of life that is what bothers so many of us. World War II was legitimate, Vietnam, Iraq 1 & 2, Afghanistan, South & Central American wars to topple governments (most notably Panama) and arguably Korea are not wars based on making the world a better place.
These are not wars we should be wasting valuable lives on.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
Aren't signing up for wars. They're signing up because of family tradition or because they want an education and benefits for the rest of their lives.
It's the politicians that decide to go to war and in most cases it's for bullshit reasons. It's not a soldiers place to make policy.
If buck privates made policy there would never be a war..just booze and broads for everybody!!!
Like Pat Tillman,But seen the truth about what was going on,Well they wind up like Pat Tillman did,Died from friendly fire but only found that out after they siffing through all the lies
And he is only one example I can give a half dozen more examples if need be
for all sorts of dangerous occupations (firemen, police, construction, deep-sea fishing, farming, etc.) are all doing a 'service' that benefits the rest of us - regardless of the risks or their reasons for doing so. This does not mean we should not mourn their loss, honor their service or value their lives.
They are not, as Susie said, "chunks of clay." But, it sounds as though your heart must be made of it.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
"Soldiers-to-be might want to research a bit" Really? You want to go with "Blame the Victim"?
Do you understand that Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" Act requires that every public school provides the names and addresses of all high school students to military recruiters in order to get their Federal funding?
In other words, no names for recruiters, no Federal money for the school. Charter schools and private schools are exempt. Their children are not preyed upon.
Schools in lower economic areas are targeted specifically because the kids there have fewer alternatives and less access to the "research" you so blithely refer to.
If you go to any public high school counseler, they will be able to tell you the names of the recruiters assigned to their schools, that's how often they see them.
Recruiters have access to the schools, they can walk the halls, talk to our kids, sell them on empty promises of glory and opportunity. They receive training to help them sell the military to both the kids and their parents.
What research is there for kids to see another side that can compete with that?
[Deleted. Site Monitor]
If you sign up in this day and age, and don't know about our
"Never ending war on the brown people", [Deleted. Site Monitor]
You act like THE ONLY answer for some people is the military.
[Deleted. Site Monitor]
[Deleted. Site Monitor], kids know exactly whats going on, there has
never been a generation more wired, more connected and more
educated. Kids today practically the entire wealth of
human knowledge at their fingertips. Recruits aren't victims
they are rubes or people that want to kill. THEY WANT TO KILL.
If you sign up in this day and age, and don't know about our "Never ending war on the brown people", you are an idiot.
You just called at least 80% of our recruits idiots. No, they do not know that when they join. Nobody's told them that's even out there for them to learn. I understand your passion, but, damn, you are really naive.
"You act like THE ONLY answer for some people is the military. You are a brainwashed tool."
I'm not the tool, fool.
I notice you did not address a single point I made, one of which is that these recruiters specifically target kids who will respond to exactly that message: that the military is the only, or at least the best, option they have. And you have obviously no idea what that is like.
"kids know exactly whats going on, there has never been a generation more wired, more connected and more educated. Kids today practically the entire wealth of human knowledge at their fingertips."
Granted, my "fuck you" was provocative, but the response it provoked from you shows your true colors. You are all about blaming the kids who sign up, without any idea of the reality of the situation.
Some kids in America are "more wired, more connected and more educated", but millions have been left behind.
And just because you say that Kids today (have) practically the entire wealth of human knowledge at their fingertips, it does not mean that they do. That's crap. Pure unmitagated crap.
Does the potential exist for all kids to have access to that knowledge? Sure. Does the reality match the potential? Not even close. What bubble do you live in that you think they do?
And, last but not least, as you show your complete and utter disrespect for those who have defended this country when it actually did need defending - and the kids who joined then were no different than those who are joining now - I can say for a fact, they do not all want to kill. I didn't, my daughter didn't, my son doesn't, my brothers didn't.
So, for you to say unequivecally, "Recruits aren't victims they are rubes or people that want to kill. THEY WANT TO KILL" is a reflection on you, not them. And it isn't a nice reflection.
In fact, it shows just how ignorant you are, even though you are, "more wired, more connected and more educated and have practically the entire wealth of human knowledge at your fingertips."
Get your head out of your ass, use some of that wealth of human knowledge and educate yourself.
I answered every point.
"And, last but not least, as you show your complete and utter disrespect for those who have defended this country when it actually did need defending - and the kids who joined then were no different than those who are joining now - I can say for a fact, they do not all want to kill. I didn't, my daughter didn't, my son doesn't, my brothers didn't."
Defend this country? From who, from what?
Since I was born we have spent an average of $350,000,000,000 a year on defense, but one September morning in 2001 the greatest military complex in world history couldn't stop four of our own planes over our most highly populated and sensitive airspace.
You don't become a fireman unless you WANT to put out fires. You don't become a cop unless you WANT to interact with criminals on a daily basis.
You are programmed. You have been sold a product. It comes in a red white and blue wrapper, but its full of dead brown people.
There is a pattern...
1. Politicians and business interests create a conflict.
2. Media fans the flames of the public opinion
3. Lower and middle class kids rally around the flag
4. War profiteers reap HUGE profits
5. Mother bury their sons, sometimes it's the only good thing they ever had in their lives.
6. Father's deify their lost sons...he gave his life for his country
7. Repeat every few years
It's a business and soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen are consumables. They are budgeted for and acceptable losses are calculated.
And this will happen again and again and again until we are all dead and this planet is a wasteland. But we did it for the red white and blue.
Sometimes, when it's done right, the military doesn't have to kill to protect.
Do you have a lock on your door? Do you use your lock? If so, why?
Is it better to have a lock on your door or to sit inside with a gun, or maybe take your gun outside and shoot whoever comes near?
I never discharged a weapon when I served. It wasn't my job, nor would I have wanted it to be.
What I had was knowledge. I kept watch. The knowledge was like a lock that kept the bad guys out.
The people who did the job I did watched the submarines that patroled up and down our coasts. It was our job to know exactly where they were and what their capabilities were.
So I knew how many nuclear missiles were always off our coast and just what damage they could do to us. And they knew we knew.
Was it a stand-off? Maybe. But we never went to war. We didn't blow each other up. They weren't allowed to attack us and we didn't attack them. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than "shock and awe".
You, if you were even alive then, were probably completely oblivious to what was an incredible danger to this country. And, make no mistake, then, just as now, there were people who wanted to use those weapons against us. I would not have wanted to attack them first, but I am not ashamed that I kept watch.
And for you to imply that we have never needed to defend ourselves is pretty damn silly.
Honestly, "You don't become a fireman unless you WANT to put out fires. You don't become a cop unless you WANT to interact with criminals on a daily basis."
That doesn't mean you want to be set on fire for someone's sadistic fun or profit, or that you expect the people in charge of the police force to be worse criminals than those on the streets. It usually means you want to serve others, even at risk to yourself. It doesn't mean you want to be a victim, or a tool, of someone else's evil intent.
There is a place for the military. When it's done right, the wars are stopped before they start. That isn't where we are now, our leaders are corrupt and have indulged in war for profit. But to blame veterans or recruits is stupid.
And you were out of line for your blanket insults against those who choose to serve.
Let me ask you something, if you saw a firefighter who had been horribly injured in a fire, would you treat her with the same disrespect you have displayed here? Call her a rube? Accuse her of liking to set fires?
What if she were injured pulling someone you love out of a fire? Would you tell her she had it coming when she signed up for the gig?
Just how big an ass are you?
You are still blasting the pro war propaganda completely oblivious to our history.
You kept watch? You mention Cuba. Why did the Cubans revolt. FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF OPPRESSION!!! First the Spanish then the U.S. Then they got played by the Soviets!!!
One empire after another grinding brown people into the ground. Trading there lives so our coffee can be sweet in the morning, and for years of political traction!!
I am a VETERAN. I was a 17 year old farm kid from Missouri when I joined. I went to Central America and committed atrocities in the name of Reagan and Freedom.
I had more in common with the poor farmers I was killing and maiming than my own officers.
You say you never pulled a trigger, well I fucking pulled a trigger too many times and US soldiers and Marines have been pulling the trigger on poor folks in Central America for over 150 years.
And for who? For big corporations who trade blood for money EVERYDAY. This century they trade the blood of poor Americans and poor Iraqi's and poor Afghani's for oil and defense contracts.
An assault rifle is weapon with a working man on each end.
Sweden hasn't went to war in 150 years. 150 years.
Scroll down and read Stupid Git's post about just the last 60 years of our RELENTLESS war on the poor and weak.
I pity the tools who wear a uniform, I honor the brave men and women who won't.
Rock on Leadership.
like GTA, but with tanks 'n shit!
Everybody knows going to war is no different thatn playing a playing a video game, right?
It makes me so angry at our government.
How worthless is an unnecessary war? Is it really worth the lives of young Americans in order to comfort the irrational fears of chicken hawks who in turn praise the bravery of these soldiers willing to die for their own personal "freedoms?"
Hannity, Limbaugh, Cheney, Savage, O'Reilly, and many other cowardly advocates of preemptive wars, please just STFU!
LimpBalls
. . . how can any one with soul look at these pictures and not struggle with anger, sadness, and frustration that we have to send our young people overseas to fight and die for neocon lies.
I'm sorry but I can't respond politically to that picture. It cheapens the boys bravery as he attempts to match his Mother or Father's.
I wonder what the Marine is saying to the boy? What is usually said to the wife (or child) who is given the flag?
"On behalf of the President of the United States, this flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation as a token of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one. Semper fidelis.
When they said it at my dad's funeral, we all started sobbing. Somehow, I didn't expect that.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
in celebrating fallen warriors.
I made an effort at it today, fyeieio.
Whatever you believe, it is not, imho, an occasion on which the wish of a "happy" day is other than ironic...
....."The Universal Soldier" lyric took me right back to the '60's when my college friends and I were protesting the war our classmates were dying in.....but at that time, most of them had no choice.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
What did you say up there that got deleted? I hope it wasn't aimed at me.
I remain thankful for the safe return of friends from Iraq - Jeff C., Bob P.
And I mourn the loss of Russ D., who came back - but not whole in spirit - as he killed his wife and then himself back in 2008.
All of them went out of sense of duty or a feeling that they were called to serve. Love of country, simple pride, it didn't matter. When they were called up, they knew this was their job, their choice.
But I can't reconcile that sense of duty with the schmuck who made it necessary to send them abroad, and then LAUGHED at their plight on national television.
There's a special corner of hell waiting for you, George W. Bush.
I'm a vet, my son is still in, my daughter is a vet, as is most of my family.
Some member of my family or another has been in the military for over 40 of the last 70 years, always proud to serve.
But what the military is becoming; mercenaries for business opportunities, is shameful.
It is beneath us as a nation. There are many reasons why Bush and Cheney should be prosecuted, but what they have done to our military surely must rank at the top of the list.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/thewall/
I do. He was 21 years old and a friend of my brother. He and my brother both served in Vietnam, '67-68. I still keep in touch with his sister. My deceased brother obviously knew many more.
Turns out that the guys who never had to worry about serving in Vietnam (with the possibility of their names on that wall) are the ones who started the most recent wars and are the biggest cheerleaders for more war.
What a shame.
My cousins, whom I adored, were both Marines in Nam. I idolized them. I told my mother that I wanted to enlist when I am old enough. (I was 14 at the time.) She told me, "Over my dead body." She was a wise woman.
When our (former)paperboy got killed, the war became real to me.
God bless them all.
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."....Muhammad Ali
...the loved ones of the dead and physically destroyed. I never discuss this horrific toll with Conservative war justifiers, they just spew cavalier Republican talking points like "war is Hell" and "people die and are injured in battle." Of course those types haven't, or will never suffer any of the lost or pain.
Thank you for your powerful piece Susie, and for the photos...I am misty-eyed from the experience...
My thoughts are with everyone struggling with the loss of their loved ones today.
Soon, Kern County, where I live, will burying another life lost...
Edit - RIP Maj. Jason George
I've never seen change without a fire
Excellent post, Susie. Looking at those pictures breaks my heart. I cannot imagine the pain those people are suffering. So many deaths, so much grieving ...
Since then:
1947-1949 Greece. Over 500 U.S. armed forces military advisers were sent into Greece to administer hundreds of millions of dollars in their civil war.
1947-1949 Turkey. Over 400 U.S. armed forces military advisers sent into Turkey.
1950-1953 Korea. In the Korean War and other global conflicts 54,246 U.S. service members died.
1957-1975 Vietnam. Over 58,219 U.S. killed.
1958-1984 Lebanon. Sixth Fleet amphibious Marines and U.S. Army troops landed in Beirut during their civil war. Over 3000 U.S. military participated. 268 U.S. military killed in bombing.
1959 Haiti. U.S. troops, Marines and Navy, land in Haiti and joined in support of military dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier against rebels.
1962 Cuba. Naval and Marine forces blockade island.
1964 Panama. U.S. troops stationed there since 1903. U.S. troops used gunfire and tear gas to clear US Canal Zone.
1965-1966 Dominican Republic. U.S. troops land in Dominican Republic during their civil war - eventually 23,000 were stationed in their country.
1969-1975 Cambodia. U.S. and South Vietnam jets dropped more than 539,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia - three times the number dropped on Japan during WWII.
1964-1973 Laos. U.S. flew 580,000 bombing runs over country - more than 2 million tons of bombs dropped - double the amount dropped on Nazi Germany. US dropped more than 80 million cluster bombs on Laos - 10 to 30% did not explode leaving 8 to 24 million scattered across the country. Since the war stopped, two or three Laotians are killed every month by leftover bombs - over 5700 killed since bombing stopped.
1980 Iran. Operation Desert One, 8 U.S. troops die in rescue effort.
1981 Libya. U.S. planes aboard the Nimitz shot down 2 Libyan jets over Gulf of Sidra.
1983 Grenada. U.S. Army and Marines invade, 19 U.S. killed.
1983 Lebanon. Over 1200 Marines deployed into country during their civil war. 241 U.S. service members killed in bombing.
1983-1991 El Salvador. Over 150 US soldiers participate in their civil war as military advisers.
1983 Honduras. Over 1000 troops and National Guard members deployed into Honduras to help the contra fight against Nicaragua.
1986 Libya. U.S. Naval air strikes hit hundreds of targets - airfields, barracks, and defense networks.
1986 Bolivia. U.S. Army troops assist in anti-drug raids on cocaine growers.
1987 Iran. Operation Nimble Archer. U.S. warships shelled two Iranian oil platforms during Iran-Iraq war.
1988 Iran. US naval warship Vincennes in Persian Gulf shoots down Iranian passenger airliner, Airbus A300, killing all 290 people on board. US said it thought it was Iranian military jet.
1989 Libya. U.S. Naval jets shoot down 2 Libyan jets over Mediterranean
1989-1990 Panama. U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy forces invade Panama to arrest President Manuel Noriega on drug charges. U.N. puts civilian death toll at 500.
1989 Philippines. U.S. jets provide air cover to Philippine troops during their civil war.
1991 Gulf War. Over 500,000 U.S. military involved. 700 plus U.S. died.
1992-93 Somalia. Operation Provide Relief, Operation Restore Hope, and Operation Continue Hope. Over 1300 U.S. Marines and Army Special Forces landed in 1992. A force of over 10,000 US was ultimately involved. Over 40 U.S. soldiers killed.
1992-96 Yugoslavia. U.S. Navy joins in naval blockade of Yugoslavia in Adriatic waters.
1993 Bosnia. Operation Deny Flight. U.S. jets patrol no-fly zone, naval ships launch cruise missiles, attack Bosnian Serbs.
1994 Haiti. Operation Uphold Democracy. U.S. led force of 20,000 troops invade to restore president.
1995 Saudi Arabia. U.S. soldier killed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia outside US training facility.
1996 Saudi Arabia. Nineteen U.S. service personnel die in blast at Saudi Air Base.
1998 Sudan. Operation Infinite Reach. U.S. cruise missiles fired at pharmaceutical plant thought to be terrorist center.
1998 Afghanistan. Operation Infinite Reach. U.S. fires 75 cruise missiles on four training camps.
1998 Iraq. Operation Desert Fox. U.S. Naval bombing Iraq from striker jets and cruise missiles after weapons inspectors report Iraqi obstructions.
1999 Yugoslavia. U.S. participates in months of air bombing and cruise missile strikes in Kosovo war.
2000 Yemen. 17 U.S. sailors killed aboard US Navy guided missile destroyer USS Cole docked in Aden, Yemen.
2001 Macedonia. U.S. military lands troops during their civil war.
2001 to present Afghanistan. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) includes Pakistan and Uzbekistan with Afghanistan. 432 U.S. killed in those countries. Another 64 killed in other locations of OEF - Guantanamo Bay, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Yemen. US military does not count deaths of non- US civilians, but estimates of over 8000 Afghan troops killed, over 3500 Afghan civilians killed.
2002 Yemen. U.S. predator drone missile attack on Al Qaeda.
2002 Philippines. U.S. sends over 1800 troops and Special Forces in mission with local military.
2003-2004 Colombia. U.S. sends in 800 military to back up Columbian military troops in their civil war.
2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 90,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.
2005 Haiti. U.S. troops land in Haiti after elected president forced to leave.
2005 Pakistan. U.S. air strikes inside Pakistan against suspected Al Qaeda, killing mostly civilians.
2007 Somalia. U.S. Air Force gunship attacked suspected Al Qaeda members, U.S. Navy joins in blockade against Islamic rebels.
Not to mention the decades long "Cold War."
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/War_Peace/W...
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
Thank you!
do we turn this around?
By attacking it (if you'll forgive the metaphor) from many angles: education, muckraking, letters to editors and congresscreatures, signing petitions, talking to friends and family, demonstrating in the streets, supporting veterans' groups who are working for peace and justice...
American CULTURE is at fault. The culture of waste, excess, violence, racism, hate, exclusion, conspicuous consumption and absolute self righteousness kills these recruits.
Watch this!!
Should be required reading for every high school student:
War Is A Racket - By Major General Smedley Butler USMC
We must stop glorifying war.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
Smedley Butler and his time are way too much of a reminder that we as a people do not learn from our past errors.
Bless all the hearts that hurt this day and will still hurt tomorrow.
Flag Day. Or today, or any day.
Go visit the guys in the veteran's hospital near you. There are always a few who have no family, no friends, no one to tell them they appreciate their sacrifice and they care about them. Imagine giving up your health and youth and being alone.
Even if it is someone unable to talk, or hear, go hold their hand, give them a little human contact. There' s a lot of those, especially from the recent wars, due to traumatic brain injuries.
I am going to the SF Veteran's Hospital on Flag Day, with a bunch of my vintage friends, we will do a little WWII USO show for them. Think about what you can do to show your thanks.
The Elks Club of America founded Flag Day, this thing we are doing is through them, so check with your local chapter and see if they have anything in the works that you can help out with.
Sorry for the long post, but we should think, what we can do besides criticize...how can we help.
My niece is a nurse at the VA hospital in SF.
You are awesome for doing that.
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
The world needs more people like you, SKdeA:)
But they're not always in harms way. And between times, if they're anything like I was (USAF, '64-'68), they're scared shitless quite a lot of the time...
don't forget bored. Didn't it sometimes seem like forever, and then suddenly, all hell breaks loose?
And then, boredom again.
or words to that effect were uttered about 50 years ago by a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower. he was a soldier, president, and patriot, and he knew what could happen if we had a business culture so intertwined with the military. so many GOP chickenhawks are proud, rightly, of what the military is and what our soldiers do for this country, but they continue to support the business complex built up around it as if that has to be supported as much as the military. like if one reduces funding for certain programs, perhaps because of waste or the like, that it's not 'supporting the troops' even though it's just a business decision to cut down on waste, fraud, etc. they equate all cutting of military funding as almost treasonous behavior. hey Kristol/Cheney et al, 'supporting the troops' isn't the same thing as wanting to rein in wasteful spending by large private military industrial companies. you would have many think that, including some weak Dems, but for those who know better we can rightly remember the true sacrifice of real soldiers, without regarding those 'war companies'. Iraq wasn't a 'necessary' war, it was a 'profitable'one, and you neocons provided it for those companies. shame on you.
Doesn't matter if there is no money for it, no reason for it, or even who is on the receiving end. The longterm outcome is of little consequence as long as some asses get kicked.
The latest one is apparently showing them Iraqis that the Saudis can't get away with 9/11.
evolved from the old "Military/Industrial complex," which must be now preserved and grown at all cost and at any price.
Gotta keep the people 'safe.'
Which duty, by the way, is never mentioned in the Constitution.
Go look for it...Not there...
All this shit about 'safety' and 'security' is mere pretext to impose ever tighter, ever more intrusive 'security measures.' The fucking FCC now claims police powers to search your home or computer without a warrant, for the love of fucking god...
I still don't understand how the rank and file hoo-rahed Deferrment Dick and a Commander in Chief who went AWOL from the National fucking Guard. Can someone explain?
And I still don't get how they managed to attack the patriotism of Max Clelland, who became a paraplegiac by jumping on a grenade to save his men.
And remember when Republicans mocked veterans by wearing "purple heart" bandaids at their convention? Talk about sick fucks.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness
I just went to Susie's web page, this woman has never served a single day in our military.... and she writes a post like this about who our service members are and why they serve? Give me a friggin break!
What did she write that is untrue?
See above. Almose everything she wrote, was a gross generalization not based in any fact at all. Already answered.
...is immoral and unjust on every level. And one doesn't need to have "served" to be able to distinguish simple right from wrong. Whatever your political leanings are, isn't this a day set aside to honor the fallen and express grief for the loved ones they left behind?
You angry little people never take a day off.
Not at all. What she wrote, was written as if she has a lot of experience in the subject matter.. she does not. She does not know a thing about it. I am not angry at anyone. She does not know what she is writing about, that is for sure. She should be ashamed for positng such nonsense in my opnion. That does not mean I am "angry" about it. It just means I am calling it what it is, a gross over generalization not grounded in fact or even experience, in this case.
Is it the characterization of the military person as scared? Of younger being restless and cocky and the elder wary? No one with any degree of common sense would see that as a blanket statement that is true for every single person.
In fact, the thesis of Susie's post is that it does a disservice to these fallen members to regard them as some generic number--that each has his/her own story and leaves a uniquely individual hole in the lives of their loved ones.
I'm not sure why someone must have been a military member to be able to write about the loss of those sacrificed in battle. That's like saying I can never write anything critical about the President, because I have never held that office. Silly logic.
I never served, but my grandfather served. He survived, luckily, but not without his own scars--both physical and psychological--and it was us, his family, that had to be there for him to help him heal and to deal with the aftermath of that pain.
And as a mother, and a daughter, I can certainly empathize with the pain of loss that the family of the fallen experience. I do not think I need to have served for that.
Or perhaps you have some other objection...
Because I think stating that young people in service want to "kill them all" is an absolute disservice to the young members of our armed forces. Because these kinds of stereotypes are complete nonsense... because this post is not reality.
Maybe some folks in here think it is ok to stereotype the younger members of our armed forces as bloodthirsty killers... last time I checked, a person is much more likely to be delivering humanatarian aid and comfort than killing another person if they are in our service. Much more likley to be in a supporting role delivering energy, fixing equipment, doing clerical work.
The post is nonsense... that about sums it up for me. A vast majority of our military does not even serve in a combat specialty... and she has the gall to make a claim that younger members want to "kill them all".
These young people take huge risks driving the roads... running the logistics... sitting at checkpoints... and she writes this nonsense. Most of our casualties are from roadside bombs... a truck driver delivering something ... and she stereotypes in this way. My problem is... she does not have a clue. My problem is, she does not know what she is writing about, and this is memorial day.
She's not suggesting that this is true for all people in the military. Wherever did you get that notion? Are you saying that it's completely and utterly false? Well, then you are as guilty of making sweeping generalizations as you accuse her.
And the point isn't the general or prevailing attitudes of the troops, but the hole their deaths leave in the lives of the loved ones.
We're supposed to be remembering that today,
Where does she use qualifiers like "all" or "many"?
She doesn't.
You're reading words that aren't there. You're assuming sweeping generalizations and missing the entire point of the essay.
I learned a long time ago in this job that no matter how you carefully or writerly you phrase things there are always going to be people like you who miss the point and read what they want to in it. It's sad to me that you can't see the forest for the trees and instead get so hung up arguing with everyone else (notice that no one else interpreted this the way you did--and there are many, many veterans reading this blog) and instead, are sharing their own losses and their own sadness about the sacrifices these servicemembers made.
I'd say that the assumptions without fact trait you've been displaying is far more "Fox News" like than anything she wrote.
or is innate in your case?
me-oww!
Did you actually read what Susie wrote? Or was it just easier to shoot off your judgmental and condescending mouth?
Put your damn brain in gear next time before you engage your keyboard.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
and I thought what she wrote was beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkpYsVkW-n4
Capt. George Junior Croft, USAF, 154th Fighter/Bomber Squadron. F-84 pilot from Kansas City, age 28. Shot down by anti-aircraft over North Korea on his second mission. Flight leader's bombs didn't release on first pass over railroad bridge; he remained in place as wingman for the second pass. Plane later exploded on impact, but an immediate flyover saw his ejection seat away from wreckage and protective harness open, personal effects gone (this part is not in the official report but was later told to my grandad at his business in KCMO. USAF refuses to acknowledge this anecdotal evidence.) Left behind a wife, Donna (25), and three children: Jimmy, Donny, and Mary Kay Croft, ages 4, almost 3, and 10 months. After three years, declared "missing presumed dead."
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
and came home with a big hole in his shoulder. I thought bullet holes were small, but he had a huge concave scar.
Thirty-five years later my little brother served in Korea, flying Medevac heliocopters over the DMZ. That was in the mid 80's.
And we are still there.
He was a Seabee (Construction Battalion) and operated a bulldozer; I've seen a picture of it -- it had an open structure, not like the ones you see today. He had to sleep under it at night, armed with his service .45.
Back in the '80s I sent him a book I'd found about the Seabees. He wrote back thanking me for it, but said that it was horrible. He saw bodies of men whose legs were totally gone, still lying around. And he got shot at, too, but never got hit. He wrote, "I will never forget."
My older brother told me that after Dad got home, he used to get up in the middle of the night and scrub and wax the kitchen floor, because he couldn't sleep because of all the nightmares. They had a very clean and shiny floor.
I'm glad he came back and was able to live a peaceful life. He built a house, fathered three children, drove a gravel truck on a local route for several decades in our small Midwest village, volunteered at the VFW Hall, built a garage, served on the Village Board, was a volunteer firefighter, voted Democratic, kept the yard immaculate, and loved repairing and renewing and building things.
Willard L. McLaughlin, June 23, 1911 - August 20, 1992
I will never forget.
and joined the Marines. That was '42.
When he turned 18,the Army sent him a draft notice. My grandmother sent it to him in the South Pacific. He wrote "come and get me" on it and sent it back.
Then he was in Korea after that.
I don't think he ever got over it either. Finally, in his 70's, after decades of pretty heavy drinking, the VA diagnosed him with PTSD.
He never talked about it.
That's funny about your father's draft notice!
My dad never talked about it either. But he (and all of us) watched reruns of every military documentary series on TV -- "Victory at Sea," "The World at War," and I think some others that I've now forgotten. My mother bought the vinyl records with the V@Sea music.
That might have helped him work through his PTSD.
And you were so young when you lost your dad. Your poor mom.
It's not of the same caliber, but my husband had a near fatal car crash when our eldest was just 2. I had nightmares the whole entire time he was in intensive care that my baby would never know her daddy and how extraordinary he was.
It encapsulates the feelings I grew up with, that I had every day. What if's and maybe if only's dominated my early life.
The first time I performed this was at a POW/MIA Day in Show Low, Arizona, Sept. 2000. To get ready for it I had to practice the song until I could perform it cleanly without choking up. Took about 50 times. I play it every chance I get, when appropriate. This is me there, in proxy, for everyone who reads here. Think about the person who's there, in spirit, at that side table seen in every VFW with a place setting, and some salt and a slice of lemon on the plate. Think about the headstone that's not going to get a flag from my old Boy Scout troop today, because that one never came home.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Exquisitely heartbreaking. I would never be able to perform it without choking up. That is a perfect Memorial Day video. Thank you for sharing it.
If I may, I want to share something that happened last night. My husband's niece graduated from j-school this weekend and we went with her mom, dad and brother to dinner to celebrate. In the middle of dinner, my s-i-l stood up and gave her a present she had been holding on to for years: her mother's Christian X pin. As a young woman in Denmark during WWII, my mother-in-law wore this pin everyday as a show of solidarity with King Christian, who openly disdained the Nazis, and refused to leave his country when the Nazis occupied it. She and her sisters took in Jews and hid them from the Nazis, which, as you might guess, was a great personal risk.
That pin symbolized great bravery in the face of abject evil. That absolutely was my mother-in-law, as fearless as anyone you'd ever want to meet. And now that pin is on my niece, with the hope that it inspires her to be as brave and fearless as her mormor (grandmother in Danish).
I can tell you, there wasn't a dry eye at the table when she put that pin on her jacket.
Oskar Schindler saved 801 Jews from the gas chambers. In Schindler's List, it was noted at the end that this enabled (as of the time of the movie) about 8500 people to live.
By using the same math, this means that in a generation we have potentially lost over 43,000 people because of the Iraq War that we will never know. Who knows if among those people we lost a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a scientist who could cure cancer, or a nurse or doctor that could have saved you or one of your loved ones?
We will never know that answer but we can be sure that war is not the method to settle our disputes.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
I live right beside a huge US army base in central Seoul. When I see these kids out shopping (when they actually do leave the base; a mini-America behind the wall) that's all they are-- KIDS. I try to picture them from the small towns across America, from whence they came, and all I see is KIDS. Kids way out of their league. They are young, naive and far far away. It's obvious many are from small towns and afraid even to "mix with the natives". Going off base is only for the brave. Many never do.
(Plopping these youngsters into a battlefield is immoral. They have no idea what they're in for!!!!!)
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
they are kids, and they really have no clue. They don't understand the contract, their obligations, other cultures, the politics that send them where they go.
Way out of their league is right. And if they are fed lies and propaganda and sent to kill, they pay for the rest of their lives.
We should be their voices. We should be fighting for them, to see that their service is not wasted.
They can't do it while they're in.
5 deferments Dick's dirty little war. Flag drapped coffins signifying the sacrifice Dick would have never made for this country yet has no problem committing others to die in lie based war for big oil and Halliburton then have to the nerve to smear and attack those who speak out against it. There is a special place in hell for Cheney.
That thought (that there's a special place in hell for Bush and Cheney) almost makes me wish there were a hell. I'll have to read Dante's Inferno again.
Personally, I think they'll have to reincarnate and work for peace for many lifetimes.
But not before going through a 1000 life times as a cockroach. Hundreds of thousands dead on a lie is a lot of bad karma to burn off.
A long but interesting paper...
http://www.army.mil/professionalwriting/volum...
Why They Fight: Combat Motivation In The Iraq War
Leonard Wong, Ph.D., Col. Thomas A. Kolditz, Ph.D., Lt. Col. Raymond A. Millen and Col. Terrence M. Potter, Ph.D.
Strategic Studies Institute
July 2003
When U.S. troops were interviewed shortly after their experience in combat (for most, it was 3 weeks of continuous enemy contact), one of the first questions the researchers posed addressed their reasons for entering the military in the first place. The responses were what most recruiters already know — to get money for college, to gain experience before looking for a job, to follow in the footsteps of a family member who had been in the military, or just to find some adventure before settling down. Although one or two mentioned that they were motivated to enlist because of September 11, 2001, most did not cite patriotism or ideology as their enlistment rationale.
(This paper also goes into much detail about "unit cohesion," and how important it is for soldiers to be "part of a winning team," as Susie also writes.—Kate)
"Weaponized Jesus" order.
First, learn how to spell.
Second, go spew your judgmental garbage elsewhere. You are really a pitiful excuse for a person.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
I am sure that Ms. Madrak has captured prevailing feelings of some people from all walks of life in this Nation, who unfortunately had no idea what they were getting into joining this conflict based upon lies until reality hit them in the face like a brick. Just the same, in this Country there are folks like you who think that your single opinion is far superior in that you know that no enlistee joined this murderous farce on the erroneous premises that they eventually came to regret.
Every time I see a photograph of a child who has lost a parent in one of our wars, it just tears my heart apart. Let's hope that we as a society can provide some small portion of the support these children have lost by losing their father or mother. And I'm not talking about money.
Most wars achieve nothing. They just inflict death, pain and suffering in a futile attempt to settle political differences. What will Iraq look like in 10 years? Afghanistan? Will it have been worth losing that little boy's father and all the other brave men and women sent to do our government's dirty work?
I fear it won't, and I mourn with all the families that have lost loved ones here and over there.
This is why Bush, Cheney and the rest of the recently removed WH gang MUST stand trial for torture and war crimes.
Those soldiers DID die in vain--that's criminal.
The funny thing is reporters will interview these tearful kids at the cemetery
And they say they want to be a soldier just like their dad.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetition_compu...
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
freedom, and duty and so on. Ho Chi Minh and Noriega and Hussein were not threatening to waste Walmart and Burger King or the local Baptist Church on Sunday morning. There was no threat to freedom. The real threat to freedom was the indoctrination by politicians, the media and career sociopaths that there was a threat. And unlike Bush, private smirks at the rubes they so easily gin up to lose their lives for some extra stock appreciation and future considerations.
The pic of Mrs. Mathes receiving her husband's flag draped coffin at Zephyrhills, Fl airport reminds us that it is our neighbors who are fighting and dying.
And, yesterday, Zephyrhills native David Reutimann won a stock car race.
Whose news item will receive more coverage?
Similarly to the death of Dale Earnhardt. He was a well paid driver, having available the best in technology and equipment, whose death was mourned by so many. Yet, that same week, a military chopper crash killed four servicemen, who weren't paid anywhere near what their service was worth, with technology and equipment that were provided by low bidder, Military Industrial Complex contractors. Those servicemen left families, who received life insurance benefits less than what Earnhardt earned with a single win in Nascar.
And, yet, Earnhardt's death is still spoken in reverential tones. Who speaks for the servicemen who died that week? Before? Since?
Priorities are out of whack.
Golly, look at that little tyke's stiff upper lip. Daddy was a baby killing terrorist who invaded innocent people and helped murder, rape, and torture a million innocent people and he got WHAT HE DESERVED while committing his crimes against humanity. So very sad.
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