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2005-08-05 Home Front: WoT

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Posted by Steve White 2005-08-05 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Here's the seed corn needed to cure the decadence John Hayes so laments in another Op piece today. It's right here in this piece, Johnny. Read slowly, carefully.

It's to learn responsibility, of the life and death variety, in early adulthood. It's to learn trust and teamwork that the omnipresent faux corporate training programs only play at. It's to learn to help others selflessly - your reward being only to see smiles slowly replace fear. It's to inculcate doing the right thing automatically - even when it can get you killed - and being fully aware of the fact. It's to mourn the loss of good people in a worthy effort. It's to step outside oneself and serve a greater and lasting good instead of fleeting self-centered gratification. It's to grow up, take responsibility, show loyalty, defend the good, and fight evil. It's to do all this by deeds, not mere words.

It's something not learned in a pub, or school, or on the telly, or even in the gym, on the pitch or playing field. It's tough and demanding and humbling and full of payback that's only understood or valued by those who've done it.

So there you go, John, my boy. Want a solid society chockablock full of solid citizens who can get things done, without whining and dithering? Want a society which will make the right choices in future conflicts? Want a society which values the long-term future and knows it all begins with what you do here and now?

Commit your entire society to doing the right thing - which means working to elect political leaders who have that vision and will act and show the backbone required. Commit your best and brightest to the task. Support them - honestly support them, without reservation or hesitation. The crucible of life is a mean and arbitrary bitch, taking many who are full of promise. But that is the nature of the beast and those who survive are further ripened and tempered by that realization. I know that America will have a solid core of amazing citizens born of this war on Islamofascism. I hope they remain in the majority, but I know they will not tolerate submission, regardless. Period. And that means precisely what it means. The future of America is secure with such people.

No John, you can't borrow any of ours - you don't need to. You need only support your own in harm's way and bitch-slap your leaders into stopping the insanity of subjecting them to jingoistic PC "standards", both at home and on the battlefield. Flush your officers, if needed, as well as your political leaders, where needed. The people in the crucible deserve your honest best efforts, not hand-wringing or justification of your enemies. Do this, do it well, and you might survive the laxity that has brought you to this moment in time. Fail in this and the slide steepens.

Posted by .com 2005-08-05 03:14|| 2005-08-05 03:14|| Front Page Top

#2 Well said, .com. You're right about the British, as well. It's well within living memory that people from other cultures admired their British officers enough to willingly die simply for their approval (see Fourteenth Army in Burma, for example). Those national character traits can't have disappeared that quickly. I think they've just been hidden under a stultifying blanket of PC idiocy. It's long past time now to get rid of that blanket. No one in the West can afford to be that foolish and obtuse anymore in the face of people who want to kill us simply for existing.

Posted by mac 2005-08-05 05:53|| 2005-08-05 05:53|| Front Page Top

#3 Hear, hear!

And this was published in the International Herald Tribune no less, newspaper of Ami expats, and recently become NYT-lite -- the audience that most needs to be exposed to these ideas.

Posted by trailing wife 2005-08-05 07:35|| 2005-08-05 07:35|| Front Page Top

#4 bravo!

Posted by 2b 2005-08-05 07:56|| 2005-08-05 07:56|| Front Page Top

#5 published in the International Herald Tribune

I guessed that it probably was posted in a liberal paper as I was reading. To them it was all blah, blah, blah, For all the mistakes in planning that have been made in this war and blah, blah blah.....Now he's gone, like almost 2,000 others.

It was worth it for them to suffer through the rest of it just to hear a soldier talk about mistakes made and precious lives lost.

Posted by 2b 2005-08-05 08:01|| 2005-08-05 08:01|| Front Page Top

#6 heh, heh - maybe we've discovered the secret to getting the message published. Throw them a bone so yummy that they are willing to bite.

Posted by 2b 2005-08-05 08:08|| 2005-08-05 08:08|| Front Page Top

#7 It's to learn to help others selflessly - your reward being only to see smiles slowly replace fear. It's to inculcate doing the right thing automatically - even when it can get you killed - and being fully aware of the fact. It's to mourn the loss of good people in a worthy effort. It's to step outside oneself and serve a greater and lasting good instead of fleeting self-centered gratification. It's to grow up, take responsibility, show loyalty, defend the good, and fight evil. It's to do all this by deeds, not mere words

it's worthy of being framed! I only wish I had had an opportunity to serve. Sometimes, I think that some people are jealous of the experiences of soldiers and that is why they try to demean the service. While most people, like me, are just grateful for those who were tested, others see it as something they lack.

Posted by 2b 2005-08-05 08:14|| 2005-08-05 08:14|| Front Page Top

#8 I'm going to have to give the imfamous.

Me too!

to 2b's comments. Execellent artice and comments.

Posted by CrazyFool 2005-08-05 08:48|| 2005-08-05 08:48|| Front Page Top

#9 I agree, CF and 2b! Sometimes, I too, find myself sitting there jealous that I didn't serve like these TRUE heroes. I have coffee club with 2-3 vets each morning here at work (1 served in 'Nam and another served in GWI, the third was in the service, but didn't get deployed). Their comraderie amazes me. Differences in age (1 is about 32, the others in their 50s, black/white, but they share a common bond I'll truly never understand. Though I don't agree with the draft (generally), a call to service could be what the "X/Y" generation needs. After 9/11, though, I find that many young kids (at least in my neck of the woods) are returning to service of the country. Maybe I'm just meant to back the troops here and by speaking up for them whenever I can, but many times I do find myself jealous of their service.

Posted by BA 2005-08-05 09:01|| 2005-08-05 09:01|| Front Page Top

#10 It's a sign of self-confidence that you can acknowledge that you are proud of the accomplishments of others.

Posted by in confidence 2005-08-05 09:37|| 2005-08-05 09:37|| Front Page Top

#11 I disagree about the draft. Those who don't want to be there will just get in the way of those who do. The American and British armed forces have real work to do, not like the many armies whose only purpose is to look good in parades and keep the lads off the dole for two years.

Posted by trailing wife 2005-08-05 12:18|| 2005-08-05 12:18|| Front Page Top

#12 Agreed, TW. Wasn't really meaning to back the draft (and I completely agree with your argument), but this upcoming generation is much more spoiled/bratty than any before it. Military service changes that and quick! Don't know the solution (except for parents to be parents, not friends, as I'm quickly learning myself).

Posted by BA 2005-08-05 12:33|| 2005-08-05 12:33|| Front Page Top

#13 BA, as the parent of two former 4-year olds, I can promise it only gets better... and more complicated... and more frightening... and much more rewarding as they get older. Have fun!

Posted by trailing wife 2005-08-05 23:05|| 2005-08-05 23:05|| Front Page Top

#14 Oh, and spoilt though this generation may be -- and they are -- they've lived through 9/11 and many of them know, better than the parents who spoil them, what is important and what isn't. From what I've seen of them, these children of divorce and two-career households value family and parenting, often more than career or material possessions. They may act like spoilt brats sometimes, but didn't we all at that age? And look how well we turned out! ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2005-08-05 23:12|| 2005-08-05 23:12|| Front Page Top

23:54 God Save The World
23:47 Lone Ranger
23:40 phil_b
23:38 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
23:33 PlanetDan
23:32 2b
23:24 2b
23:16 Ptah
23:12 trailing wife
23:07 Laurence of the Rats
23:05 trailing wife
23:05 DanNY
23:03 Jackal
23:03 trailing wife
22:59 DanNY
22:54 DanNY
22:44 trailing wife
22:41 Robert Crawford
22:40 Robert Crawford
22:27 trailing wife
22:23 CrazyFool
22:23 Edward Yee
22:16 Bobby
22:15 trailing wife