Eric N. said:
I'll say it agian though... They signed up for it whether you like it or not, they are doing their job a job that you should be proud of them for. I hope they come home safe and I also hope that he/she never reads your post or hears you talking like that... I find it very disgraceful and disrespectful.
To a certain degree, I can agree with this.
The left so often construes soldiers as instruments of injustice and destruction on an individual level.
I very much believe in the Emersonian vision of the Soldier--the virtue, ENLIGHTENMENT (if you will!) bestowed on each by willingly facing death, regardless of creed or conflict. I'll never, ever question the conviction of a soldier, of ANY army.. friend or foe or murderer or liberator.. because of this. The historical tradition of what it means to be a
professional (not ancient Egyptian conscription, or Roman bribery, or Swiss mercenaries, or Mongol raiders..there is a very clear distinction) soldier is one of the few TRUE things left in the waning congruity of common human interest.
Saving Private Ryan, that Spielberg film I'm sure all of you are familiar with, while mired in hackneyed jingoistic histrionics, is one of the few artistic representations of the Soldier that in my mind does true justice to the concept of "placing your life on the Altar of Freedom".
Atrocity, lapse of judgement, insanity, rage, it all comes with the proverbial territory. It is never justified, and I would never condone it, but crimes against humanity are the price WE, the civilians, pay for their omnipresent heroism, the price we pay so that we can sleep at night without confronting abject horror in our daily life like they must . It is often steep, and sometimes unfathomable, but it is, because it MUST be. This notion of sacrifice is older than time itself. Many Aztecs and Mayans willingly went to the sacrificial altar, eager to give themselves for the Beauty of the their world. We've digressed into a self-serving society, Me First, Fuck You Buddy, and so this notion has lost most of its meaning. However war forces us to remember and recognize our own historical trajectory. It comes in horrendous bursts. Oh. Well.
As for the U.S., the young men and women and Iraq cannot EVER be blamed for the foolishness of their leader. They would just as readily have gone into Rwanda and thwarted one of the greatest unspoken tragedies of our time with as much ebullience and fervor as Michael Moore crassly derides. If called upon they would crash through the Colombian jungles, losing life and limb, to dismantle FARC. If Bush told them to, they would die trying to defend the Quechua Indians in the Andes from murdering, greedy "communist" paramilitary groups. In any situation, for better or for worse, soldiers give their lives for what OTHER people think is right. Good. Bad. Left wing progress or Right wing imperialism, it doesn't matter. For this reason ALONE, every U.S. soldier in Iraq that dies is a hero. Every Wehrmacht soldier in Nazi Europe that perished is a hero. Every one of Napoleon's soldiers a hero. Bigoted Confederates, abolitionist Yankees. Native American murdering Cavalry, Navajo warriors (lenience is given when referring to indigenous soldiers, who were without the political infrastructed associated with the term "professional", but it remains the same). Whatever the theatre in which professional soldiers gave their lives, they rest with my profound regard and respect.
So, if you are an American citizen, as far as that goes:
How DARE you mock a family that sends a son or daughter to fight. He or she is a Soldier, and for that reason alone they will forever deserve reverence, much more than you or I. Don't EVER project what is probably your own misguided political idealism on THEIR sacrifice. One who does deserves a fate worse than the death that confronts those they mock.
SUPPORT OUR FUCKING TROOPS.
