Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] War

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] War
  • Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:36:59 -0500

You'd think someone who had been tortured would revile it instead of
wanting another 100 years more.

It has been my observation that those who have been in battle, those who have suffered in the military, and of course those of family military history and pride, tend to feel that war is bad but necessary, that service is a duty, and that it is necessary to engage in war from time to time to let the world know we are ready, willing, and able. I felt this to be evident when Tvo and I debated the Iraq invasion. It came to me that truth, logic and reason are different if you have a wartime background. Some of you will recall Tvo's description of a pilot released at the end of a runway by his Japanese captors--he had literally been skinned alive and begged to be shot.

Such memories change how one's mind works.

I was lucky. I enlisted in the Army just before high school graduation and went to basic training right after graduation. My luck was that the year was 1954, as the Korean war was ending and before the Vietnam war had become full-blown. So I spent my Army years running a drafting office in Japan. I am not one bit sorry that it worked out like that. I respect and have great empathy for those who have served under more difficult conditions, even more so when those conditions were unnecessarily created by politicians, as has almost always been the case in modern times.

Old men have experience and sometimes they have wisdom. Often they have pride. When pride overrides wisdom, they do foolish things.






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page