American 'doody'
God Bless our Vets
I love my country, and I have the utmost respect and gratitude for the men and women that have served this great nation in order to make it a better place. Now I'm not real politically saavy and therefore am not attempting to open myself to debate on the how's or why's of this war we are in, who is at fault and whether or not it is right or wrong. To me, it IS and always has been a moot point. The fact of the matter is that we have troops on foreign soil giving their lives for a belief in something greater than them and it is my duty as an American to support these men and women. At all times. Period. No questions.
What the hell has happened to us as a Nation? It's a crying shame when the media, is allowed to twist their stories to highlight what they suggest is an 'injustice' on the part of our military then come back and claim "we support our troops". I wish I could still believe that the American people are smarter than that. But it seems that we have sunk to a new low. Our troops do not deserve to be slandered like this. and on a day like today, I refuse to allow those around me to forget what each and everyone of these courageous people have done and continue to do. I repudiate the notion that soldiers who have died in the midst of this war, or any other for that matter, have died for an 'unjust cause'. These soldiers gave their life for the love of their country, and have done so willingly only to ensure that this generation and the next needn't worry of facing some brazen, U.N.-backed dictator weilding nuclear weapons ten years from now. There are no words to express my feelings for what these men and women do everyday. I am proud to be an American, and I am proud *because* of them. Our soldiers will return eventually , but in the meantime, if people really want to support our troops they could start by living a little patriotism and believing in them. Showing some gratitude for the fact that these soldiers accept that you and I and the idea of this nation are worth dying for. I thank them for all that they have accomplished, and everything they have yet to.
What follows is a wonderful and well written article that pretty much sums up alot of what I believe about the present state of this war, the American people and political agenda dictating combat far better than I ever could.
NEW YORK — A bit over 36 years ago, I attended a formal dinner in Houston for an extraordinary collection of celebrated heroes, hundreds of recipients of the Medal of Honor. My tablemates included “Commando” Kelly, the first Medal of Honor recipient of World War II in the European Theater; “Pappy” Boyington, Marine fighter ace; and Eddie Rickenbacker, air hero of the First World War. Also in attendance was Bill Seach, who received the Medal of Honor for fighting his way into the citadel of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion 1900. At the time, there were about 450 living recipients of the Medal of Honor. Today, there are only 118, most of whom are in the winter of their lives. Statistically, there will be half that number in five years, and none in fifteen years. Since the end of the war in Vietnam, there have been only three awards of the Medal, all posthumously.
Changing world
The world has changed, and with it has changed the nature of military service. The surviving veterans of the Second World War are the remnants of a legion of nearly 20 million comrades. Almost one of every six U.S. citizens was under arms during WWII, and it was difficult to encounter a household that didn’t have a member in the Service. Today, with about 1.6 million men and women serving, only one citizen in 175 is in a military uniform. Unlike the America of the 1940s, our country today is in the uneasy circumstance of being defended by a tiny number of young people. Very few of us know soldiers … and far fewer still are soldiers.We have been attacked at home, we are at war, and we honor this Veterans’ Day the magnificent patriots who serve us on many dangerous fields abroad.
Generational disconnect
And yet, while we honor our troops, those who served 60 years ago find it difficult to understand fully the modern American way of war. My father served in the South Pacific, in New Guinea and the Philippines, during the Second World War. He and his generation find the current use of the military instrument of power to be a confusing enterprise.The war against the Axis had as its objective a simple and very specific objective: unconditional surrender. We vowed that enemy nations would resist only in the certainty that they would be destroyed utterly. There was only one of two fates, surrender or death, and all strategies and tactics were devised to achieve our enemies’ complete subjugation. In the 60 years since we won the war, none of our major conflicts has been fought to achieve such a simple objective, and in no case has there been an unlimited use of military power. Among older veterans, this causes a peculiar form of dissonance. Military forces are for destroying the enemy, and if we are not meant to unleash overwhelming military force to achieve our objectives, what is the point of using force at all? These old vets see little approbation in the observation that the military is a blunt instrument, and they chafe when they perceive that the use of our troops is hamstrung by sophisticated and changing rules or directed to achieve goals that are only vaguely defined. To many veterans, the nuanced vagaries of modern international politics, and the attendant ambivalence with which military force is regarded by national leaders, are convoluted, frustrating, even painful. And yet we understand that we have been wildly fortunate to produce, generation after generation of young people who defend us valiantly, with little recompense, shifting guidance, and no recognition — save on a single day in November.
**Jack Jacobs is an MSNBC military analyst. He is a retired U.S. Army Colonel. He earned the Medal of Honor for exceptional heroism on the battlefields of Vietnam and also holds three Bronze Stars and two Silver Stars.
I love my country, and I have the utmost respect and gratitude for the men and women that have served this great nation in order to make it a better place. Now I'm not real politically saavy and therefore am not attempting to open myself to debate on the how's or why's of this war we are in, who is at fault and whether or not it is right or wrong. To me, it IS and always has been a moot point. The fact of the matter is that we have troops on foreign soil giving their lives for a belief in something greater than them and it is my duty as an American to support these men and women. At all times. Period. No questions.
What the hell has happened to us as a Nation? It's a crying shame when the media, is allowed to twist their stories to highlight what they suggest is an 'injustice' on the part of our military then come back and claim "we support our troops". I wish I could still believe that the American people are smarter than that. But it seems that we have sunk to a new low. Our troops do not deserve to be slandered like this. and on a day like today, I refuse to allow those around me to forget what each and everyone of these courageous people have done and continue to do. I repudiate the notion that soldiers who have died in the midst of this war, or any other for that matter, have died for an 'unjust cause'. These soldiers gave their life for the love of their country, and have done so willingly only to ensure that this generation and the next needn't worry of facing some brazen, U.N.-backed dictator weilding nuclear weapons ten years from now. There are no words to express my feelings for what these men and women do everyday. I am proud to be an American, and I am proud *because* of them. Our soldiers will return eventually , but in the meantime, if people really want to support our troops they could start by living a little patriotism and believing in them. Showing some gratitude for the fact that these soldiers accept that you and I and the idea of this nation are worth dying for. I thank them for all that they have accomplished, and everything they have yet to.
What follows is a wonderful and well written article that pretty much sums up alot of what I believe about the present state of this war, the American people and political agenda dictating combat far better than I ever could.
NEW YORK — A bit over 36 years ago, I attended a formal dinner in Houston for an extraordinary collection of celebrated heroes, hundreds of recipients of the Medal of Honor. My tablemates included “Commando” Kelly, the first Medal of Honor recipient of World War II in the European Theater; “Pappy” Boyington, Marine fighter ace; and Eddie Rickenbacker, air hero of the First World War. Also in attendance was Bill Seach, who received the Medal of Honor for fighting his way into the citadel of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion 1900. At the time, there were about 450 living recipients of the Medal of Honor. Today, there are only 118, most of whom are in the winter of their lives. Statistically, there will be half that number in five years, and none in fifteen years. Since the end of the war in Vietnam, there have been only three awards of the Medal, all posthumously.
Changing world
The world has changed, and with it has changed the nature of military service. The surviving veterans of the Second World War are the remnants of a legion of nearly 20 million comrades. Almost one of every six U.S. citizens was under arms during WWII, and it was difficult to encounter a household that didn’t have a member in the Service. Today, with about 1.6 million men and women serving, only one citizen in 175 is in a military uniform. Unlike the America of the 1940s, our country today is in the uneasy circumstance of being defended by a tiny number of young people. Very few of us know soldiers … and far fewer still are soldiers.We have been attacked at home, we are at war, and we honor this Veterans’ Day the magnificent patriots who serve us on many dangerous fields abroad.
Generational disconnect
And yet, while we honor our troops, those who served 60 years ago find it difficult to understand fully the modern American way of war. My father served in the South Pacific, in New Guinea and the Philippines, during the Second World War. He and his generation find the current use of the military instrument of power to be a confusing enterprise.The war against the Axis had as its objective a simple and very specific objective: unconditional surrender. We vowed that enemy nations would resist only in the certainty that they would be destroyed utterly. There was only one of two fates, surrender or death, and all strategies and tactics were devised to achieve our enemies’ complete subjugation. In the 60 years since we won the war, none of our major conflicts has been fought to achieve such a simple objective, and in no case has there been an unlimited use of military power. Among older veterans, this causes a peculiar form of dissonance. Military forces are for destroying the enemy, and if we are not meant to unleash overwhelming military force to achieve our objectives, what is the point of using force at all? These old vets see little approbation in the observation that the military is a blunt instrument, and they chafe when they perceive that the use of our troops is hamstrung by sophisticated and changing rules or directed to achieve goals that are only vaguely defined. To many veterans, the nuanced vagaries of modern international politics, and the attendant ambivalence with which military force is regarded by national leaders, are convoluted, frustrating, even painful. And yet we understand that we have been wildly fortunate to produce, generation after generation of young people who defend us valiantly, with little recompense, shifting guidance, and no recognition — save on a single day in November.
**Jack Jacobs is an MSNBC military analyst. He is a retired U.S. Army Colonel. He earned the Medal of Honor for exceptional heroism on the battlefields of Vietnam and also holds three Bronze Stars and two Silver Stars.
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