Jeeez. And I thought I was being rough...
Shee-it.
This is "rough". By the time I read the post and the comments, all I could think to say (so I didn't) was, "Hey, hey, hey now!!! Stop it, y'all!!! CUT! IT! OUT! DAMN IT!!!" just like I do when my horse-dogs get carried away playing and start getting too serious. But, unlike my dogs, who know me as the "Alpha" and who do listen and quit it, I wasn't so sure I wanted to try that with these two guys. If my 150 pound "puppies" were fighting this strenuously, it'd be past the hollering stage. It'd be time for a stick or maybe a fire hose fulla cold water. However it got broken up, though, the last thing I'd do with big dogs fighting like this is physically impose myself upon it. Good way to get various body parts gnawed off if ya do. Know what I'm sayin'? Just wow. Update @ 3:21p... Okay, first thing is, I need to remember when I do these "update" things to NOT look at the clock on this computer. It's only an hour and a half ahead. *rolls eyes* Second thing and the real reason for this...Here's Jack's post that so riled Rob.
Now, y'all can read both sides and decide for yourselves. After having done so myself, the only thing I can say is this:
Hey Bob... remember last night when we were talking about All in the Family and the "Mike's friend the draft-dodger" episode?
Well, if this isn't a shriek for that episode to be aired again, nothing ever will be.
Scary, almost, how relevant that show still is, isn't it? My hand to God, I'm gonna find that episode (I have it on tape right here somewhere) and transcribe Archie's speech, the one that fits this, the one that still makes me cry from the way he's screaming. Be back later.... Found it! Mike (to Archie): "When the hell are you going to admit that the war was wrong?" Archie (shouting--getting angrier by the minute): "I ain't talkin' about that war! I ain't talkin' about that goddamn war no more! I'm talkin' about somethin' else! And what he did was wrong...sayin' he won't go! You think people in this country can say whether or not they want to go to war?! You couldn't get a decent war off the ground that way! All the young would say no, sure they would, because they don't wanna get killed! That's why we leave it to the Congress because them old crocks ain't gonna get killed! And they're gonna do the right thing and get behind the President and vote YES!" Every single time I see this episode, this scene makes me cry. The timbre of Archie's voice, the way it distorts, the intensity... it just gets me every time.
Then Pinky, Archie's friend whose son was killed in Viet Nam, says... "I understand how you feel, Arch. My kid hated the war, too. But he did what he thought he had to do and David here, he did what he thought he had to do. But David's alive to share Christmas dinner with us. And if Steve were here, he'd want to sit down with him. And that's what I want to do." (holds out his hand to David) "Merry Christmas, David." It's been thirty years.
Same issues, different war, different century even. The sentence in Archie's dialog that I made boldface, I think answers most of Jack's questions about whether or not any of the ones who power the wheels of the war machine in Congress really know, or care, about the true costs of being in a war. The Government didn't care back then about the men they sent to Nam. It wasn't them or their friends or family, after all, so why would they have cared? They don't care now, either. It's still not their people who're going, so... why would they? Maybe they can't.
Maybe they're not supposed to.
I don't know. All I do know is our Government depends on these men and women to defend this country and these men and women should be able to depend on the Government to see to it that they are as "recovered" from the experience as possible. Unfortunately, that's NOT the way it is. Never has been. Think it ever will be? I certainly hope so, because the way it is now is just plain wrong, but I also doubt it, because the Government will never truly care.
And, that's because to them, within the luxury of their distant perspective, the (hoped for) end result always justifies the means.
No matter what the cost.
Comments
1
Yeah, Vietnam is the only war this country ever fought and everything military from now until the end of time needs to be examined through that broken lens.
If you think that leftist-written All in the Family scene has any relevance today-- it AIN'T VIETNAM and we DON'T DRAFT SOLDIERS ANYMORE--- go share your wisdom with the horses. They might appreciate it.
You're as bad a Jack with all that 60s emotional shit. "Nobody cares!" "It's ALWAYS been this way!" My cup runneth over with LOOOOOOVVVEEEE!Boo-hoo-hoo.
That is pure bullshit and if you studied history, you'd know it.
If you think that leftist-written All in the Family scene has any relevance today-- it AIN'T VIETNAM and we DON'T DRAFT SOLDIERS ANYMORE--- go share your wisdom with the horses. They might appreciate it.
You're as bad a Jack with all that 60s emotional shit. "Nobody cares!" "It's ALWAYS been this way!" My cup runneth over with LOOOOOOVVVEEEE!Boo-hoo-hoo.
That is pure bullshit and if you studied history, you'd know it.
Posted by: Acidman at January 19, 2005 11:11 AM (rz1Lc)
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