As for the hyperbole, my grandfather of late memory, who was in the Pacific, once or twice talked about Iraq that way during the pre-surge days when things were going really badly, so I imagine some sort of combination of age, extreme frustration, nationalistic conservatism, and military experience possibly feeding into the frustration and nationalism. Clarence can correct me if I'm wrong about any of that analysis.
Nathan- I think that is true but your grandfather (God rest his soul) and I are coming at it from two different sides... your grandfather and my father who was also in th Pacific had the glory of battle...we do not have many battles nowadays- of course Fallujah is an example of one buteven that was not two militaries facing each other as it always was until WWII
People in my generation had to deal with assholes tlling us our brothers died for nothing and only recently- seeing this war- do I have to believe it. My father and men like him died facing an enemy who your grandfather fought...it was easy for widows like my mother to understand why their husbands were dead- not easy to cope but easy to accept compared to widows from Korea on. I was on civic action teams in Vietnam where men were killed providing security for a soccer match- how do you tell THAT to his woman???
I keep talking about the traffic cops and opium because two young men were killed that way- one's granddad and ones uncle are members of my Legion post
I identify with these kids because we don't know what our mission is!!! No one wanted to see communism spread but was a mother willing to lose her son for it? How would a mother feela bout losing her son because he was patrolilng an intersection? I wrappd my arms around one of those mother and held her the day she found out- No mother wants to lose her son but in my dad's generation it was for fighting tru eevil...after 9/11 It was the same way but now we are sending our men and women to die for a country that doesn't want us there and it makes me sick- and I mean that literally since it is not good for my blood pressure to feel this angry
I am no Ron Paul fan but I see his point here...I will be the first to speak up to use force where I think it is necessary for AMERICA but this here in Afghanistan is not a cause I want one more person to die for
