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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> 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.