In Memoriam, 2016, by Robert Gore
On Memorial Day, America remembers and honors those who died while serving in the military. It is altogether fitting and proper to ask: for what did they die? Do the rationales offered by the military and government officials who decide when and how the US will go to war, and embraced by the public, particularly those who lose loved ones, stand up to scrutiny and analysis? Some will recoil, claiming it inappropriate on a day devoted to honoring the dead. However, it is because war is a matter of life and death, for members of the military and, inevitably, civilians, that its putative justifications be subject to the strictest tests of truth and the most probing of analyses.
This is an excerpt. For the full article please click the above link.
This is an excerpt. For the full article please click the above link.
infiltration of the country and gaining power within it.
our internal vigilance is so far below that which is
required ... that we are bound to fail if we don't change.
this nation will become the u.s.of p.c. -- j
.
I come from the part of southeast Europe that was under Ottoman Turks' occupation for more than 400 years. The people have an expression, poorly translated here, "damned Turkish times, never again!" I will never ever submit to any Islamic laws, or accept that Islam influences our culture or policies. Should that start to happen, I will escape as I did from communists. I would have a prejudice against a Muslim neighbor. I had some such neighbors in my long gone past. Never again! Islam is trying to push humanity for more than a millennium back. I have read their Koran. It is an evil book.
EDIT: inserted forgotten initial salute
Extermination of ISIS, HAMAS and other jihadi is a different matter. Also, if we completely abandon the area, what happens to Israel? they are powerful, but they cannot stand against the entire Arab world, not to mention the Iranian threat. Not that I'm a confidante in any form, but I can assure you with a certainty that if they are pressed to the point of extinction, they will resort to nuclear retaliation. It is true that our policies to date in that area have been a dreadful mix of poor judgment and stupid moves. Sometimes a show of force and the display of an iron will are just as effective, providing we are not retaliating for another "one-off" attack.
I do have one more addition. I wonder if the current occupant of the White House bothered to invite the Prime Minister of Japan to come and place a wreath on the deck of the Arizona.
When General Tojo heard the rhetoric after Pearl Harbor he said, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping tiger." I think the tiger opened its eye on 9-11 and went back to sleep.
In those days, when I was a kid, all Japanese were interchangeable villains. As to patriotism, it would make most Americans today seem like guests rather than citizens.
There are evil people in the world that you can do little else but fight and kill them. And there are people in the world not capable of fighting them. We shouldn't be morally obligated to help them, but we should choose to help when we can.
The greatest disservice we can do to veterans is to act like there is a second, "more peaceful" path to war. This has lead to the United States losing every war since we've attempted this method.
Like Robin Olds said to President Johnson when Johnson told him that we were in Vietnam to prevent the North Vietnamese from interfering with the south, "the way to end this war is to win the damned thing!" I.E. Find your enemy and destroy them. Pretending your enemy is not your enemy just means that you are going to lose.
Including small town and rural county tin-horn politicians who has done that since the late 1700s,, I bet you could sink another Titanic before you could stack in half all of "those."
However, after what it pulled, Japan deserved to get it's butt kicked...Period...Hydrogen bombs...a bit drastic and probably was a show of power and the little creatures that made them were dying to try it out.
Germany?...Hmm...I've always seen it as a fight for humanity...The Dignity of Humanity was then and not so much now...what America was all about.
WW1 was of course...a black swan event.
We Americans, again until late, are a soft touch with easily pulled heart strings...I'm not ashamed of that...but it's something we need to acknowledge and guard it with reason.
Note: my praise of your Honesty.
I think they were bad boys and deserved what they got from us.
They got their butts kicked, and they are into what looks like a permanent recession, so they are quiet. Give them the opportunity and I wonder how long it would take for them to want to take over other countries again. Same comment for the Chinese government and the Russians, and even Germany for that matter. The United States hasn't been free of this desire either, with a very checkered past.
Without a true dedication to freedom brought about by a lot of rational thinking, human nature seems not far from the animal instinct to survive any way possible.
Further, Japan made hostile overtures on the Mainland when they sent war planes over San Francisco in 1941. Also, there is a rumor from 1942 that there was a battle between Japanese forces and US forces near Los Angles.
While they had no chance of conquering the US they were definitely up for taking our territoriality at the expense of our people.
i note you comment on "honor" and not "sacrifice"...i like that...
also, they asked the Japanese generals as to why they did not invade california after Pearl Harbor, the generals did not want to face the millions of guns private citizens owned...as the primary reason that they did not invade mainland u.s.....
Just look at all the male commentators here who virtually advocate genocide, or at least killing them until they no longer want to defend themselves. These commentators whitewash our crimes against humanity as "a dreadful mix of poor judgment and stupid moves". Are we really in the process of destroying 7 or more countries over there just to protect Israel? Is endless war really the best way to protect it? Israel will not rest until it has goaded the US into attacking Iran as well, notwithstanding a verifiable agreement that Iran will not pursue nuclear weapons. Need I repeat that Iranians are not Arabs, have no love for Arabs, and are a different sect of Islam (Shia).
With every day that we pursue our terrorist acts against those countries, we dig ourselves deeper into an immoral abyss. History will judge us and our hubris of wanting to dominate the globe because we think we can, and I fear that judgment will be severe.
Secondly, pencils do not make mistakes, guns do not kill and power does not corrupt.
Altogether about four years in total passed and man o man did they want us! Until it was over.
Wayne Morse was the only honest politician I ever met. Come to think of it at that level he was one of the only two I ever met. The other one was stumping college poly sci. classes looking for votes.
I say al this sort of tongue in cheek but not very deep in the jowls., Did you know that not one Democrat voted to approve going into Iraq? The rest just confessed to being taken to the cleaners and ha ha were rejected as being too dirty to pale.