Text 28204, 84 rader
Skriven 2007-04-17 18:57:00 av VERN HUMPHREY
     Kommentar till en text av ALAN HESS
Ärende: run away?
=================
AH>By Tom Matthews

AH>April 10, 2007

AH>Running away.

AH>It is taboo to even utter the words in relation to battle. Once the war is
AH>engaged, once the armaments start roaring, once your fellow soldiers begin
AH>falling dead on either side of you - even once you understand that your lead
AH>have failed you - there is but one way to go: forward, ever forward. Be
AH>victorious or be dead, but never be found heading in the other direction. So
AH>say all those who bravely define courage from the plush foxholes of punditry
AH>and chicken hawk patriotism, having never tasted warfare themselves.

AH>But consider Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith's immortal line: "He who fights a
AH>runs away, may live to fight another day."

So far as I know, Goldsmith never served in combat -- and I suspect Tom
Matthews hasn't, either.

This kind of thing encourates the enemy -- it is a clear signal to them
to redouble their efforts to kill Americans with a promise that they
will win by doing so.

I was a victim of that crap in Viet Nam, and they are trying to do to
this generation of American soldiers what they did to my generation.


It has those two deplorable words
AH>runs away - so I always took it to be nothing but a coward's rationalization
AH>for retreat. But if one accepts the blunt reality that despite the most nobl
AH>intentions, sometimes the enemy is simply more savage or more determined or
AH>luckier than the good guys, there often comes a time in war when anything ot
AH>than retreat means suicide.

AH>Sometimes warriors have to run away - when to do otherwise is madness.

AH>Here's Goldsmith's entire quote, the latter half of which I would guess most
AH>have never heard: "He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another da
AH>but he who is in battle slain, can never rise and fight again." Is this
AH>cowardice, or hard pragmatism?

AH>Because there will be "another day." And another, and another after that. I
AH>know, because the Bush administration told me. Back before the mantra was,
AH>"We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here," the Wh
AH>House repeatedly threatened that there would be another 9/11-style attack on
AH>American soil. Back when it was important to scare the heck out of us becaus
AH>campaign was on, we were told almost matter-of-factly that a military presen
AH>would be needed one day soon to combat more horrors here at home, not to
AH>mention all the new battlefields throughout the world.

AH>And guess what? By any measure, Iraq has left our services decimated. Almost
AH>every expert familiar with military readiness says we will not be able to
AH>respond with the force needed the next time action is required. All as we
AH>continue to weaken our defenses further while trapped in the middle of someo
AH>else's civil war.

AH>Will Iraq descend into further chaos if troops are withdrawn? Perhaps, but
AH>better that hell now than five years from now. The sooner we get that nightm
AH>in our rearview mirror, the sooner we can begin making our troops healthy an
AH>whole again, so we'll be prepared for the blowback that our disastrous actio
AH>in Iraq have all but guaranteed.

AH>We can begin to figure out how we can retain soldiers who have been
AH>overextended and sent into battle with insufficient protection. We can begin
AH>figure out where the new recruits are going to come from now that potential
AH>enlistees know that not only might their commanders send them to war unprepa
AH>and under false pretenses, but that if they are wounded they may be left to
AH>in a tangle of government bureaucracy and incompetence. We can begin to
AH>resupply the depleted stores of gear and weaponry. We can begin to learn fro
AH>the horrifying list of mistakes made throughout this campaign, so we can get
AH>right the next time.

AH>On another day.

AH>Tom Matthews wrote the film "Mad City" and the novel "Like We Care." His e-m
AH>address is likewecare@wi.rr.com.

AH>Copyright + 2007, The Baltimore Sun | Get Sun home delivery

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