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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

I forgot to add that when one has done things that one finds  
repugnant, one tends to rationalize. Having been engaged in killing  
would, I think, tend to cause one to find justification. That might be  
necessary to live with the memories.

On Jun 19, 2008, at 9:36 AM, Gene GeRue wrote:

> > 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.