Text 28934, 106 rader
Skriven 2007-05-29 00:34:07 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: My Memorial Day post from my blog.
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Today is a fairly rare day in my life.  It happens to be my birthday, which is
of no great import in and of itself; and it also happens to be Memorial Day. 
Both events on the same day has only happened a handful of times in my life. 
It has caused me to think of things I normally spend little time on during the
year, and in a manner one must almost call pensive.

First, I am a patriotic American.  I have studied American history,
particularly military history, all my life.  I am fascinated by the confluence
of historical events that led to the birth of this most unique of nations in
the history of civilization.  I have a lot of respect for the people who
created and fought for this nation, and the millions of men and women who have
sacrificed to make it what it is.

Second, I am a student of the history of civilization and the forces that shape
ideas and cultures.  I dearly love the ancient history of Greece and Rome, and
particularly Egypt of the Pharoahs.  But it is the history of the last 250
years that is most important and contains the most food for thought.  Despite
all the wars and intrigues of kings and emperors, popes, and tyrants, and the
plain common folk, there has been more progress made in the last 250 years on
all fronts than at any other time in human history. It is even more so, because
I am living it.

I can remember when people still drove the old pre-war cars from the late 30's
because manufacturing had not yet caught up with demand for new cars.  I
remember listening to 'The Bickersons' on radio before people had TV sets.  I
remember the nation-wide craze over Walt Disney's Davy Crocket, and how proud I
was of that cheesy coonskin cap.  I remember watching my first Republican Party
convention on a tiny black and white TV with my dad, and wearing a button that
said "I Like IKE" to school every day. 
As I began to get a bit older, I started paying more attention to science, and
developed a life-long interest in archaeology and paleontology.  I remember
standing on the porch with my dad watching as the Russian Sputnik satellite
streaked overhead, and how scared everybody was of the Russians even though all
the adults clammed up whenever the kids came into the room.  But we knew the
world had changed overnight.

I remember meeting several friends of my father who had served in the military
during World War II and the Korean War.  One of them was an Englishman who had
been involved in the chase and sinking of the battleship Bismarck and who still
carried a piece of German shrapnel in his back from that fight.  It slowly
began to sink in that we were involved in a war of nerves and brinkmanship with
the Soviets, and that was forcibly brought home with the "duck and cover"
nuclear attack drills at school.

Then, I remember hearing Nixon and Kennedy debate on the radio, and how glad I
was that Nixon was so much better; only to have that sentiment crushed when
Kennedy won by a landslide, and people said it was because Kennedy knew how to
use TV to his advantage.  That was my first real lesson in political
gamesmanship.  I remember sitting, too, at my friend's house listening to his
uncle tell about how he had narrowly escaped capture by the Cubans during the
Bay of Pigs, and how Kennedy had sold the Cuban freedom fighters and their US
allies down the river. I never really processed all that until years later,
because it wasn't too long before I watched as someone murdered President
Kennedy one morning in Dallas.  Democrat or not, I was horrified that someone
would actually kill the President, and like most people I was glad when Jack
Ruby killed Oswald a few days later.  It wasn't until many years later that I
came to the conclusion that Oswald had been a dupe and that somebody else
actually did the deed.

There were many other events after that, but nothing really stands out until
1968.  That period of the mid-60's to the mid-70's was another life altering
series of events.  Kent State, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the Tet Offensive,
Khe Sanh, my best friend dying in Cambodia trying to save some pinned down
Marines, other school friends never returning from Vietnam, and my own baptism
of fire in 1972 off the coast of North Vietnam.  The thing that I remember the
most, and what hurt the most, was the way my country abandoned its own veterans
to the ridicule of those on the left.  As long as I live, I will never be able
to forgive people like Jane Fonda, John Kerry, and the countless faceless
others who spit on returning GIs, who called them baby killers, and murderers. 
We didn't ask to be sent over there, and we did our best in spite of that
because our country asked us to, and we didn't deserve the treatment we got
when we came home.

Today, I see much of the same mentality among those on the left.  They make
trips to the stronghold of our enemy and make statements that put our troops in
the field at risk.  For twenty years we watched in frustration as terrorists
attacked us almost with impunity in various places around the world while we
did nothing.  Then, the ultimate insult of 9/11, and we finally stood up and
said enough is enough.  I was proud that we were finally going to do something,
and our troops have performed beyond expectation. But, once again, the left has
gotten cold feet, and the the mind-numbing crush of fear is crawling up their
backs.  They are afraid of staying the course, saying that we are sacrificing
our troops for nothing.  They just can't seem to get it into their heads that
this enemy will not stop and will not be satisfied until Islam rules the world.
 They don't seem to care that setting a date for leaving Iraq is the same as
giving our enemies a timetable on how to defeat us, and that it puts thousands
more troops at risk than actually fighting and winning would do.

So, at the end of the day, I know that we have to stay the course, that our
troops are volunteers and are committed to completing the mission (many are on
their 4th active duty tour in Iraq or Afghanistan), and that our very way of
life is at stake here.  We are the greatest country in the history of mankind. 
We have an obligation to everyone in the world who loves freedom, and wants to
live free of oppression and tyranny.  But, most of all, we owe a debt of
gratitude and our allegiance to those men and women who are going in harm's way
because their country called on them to do so.  They are the finest Americans
it has been my privilege to know over the last 57 years.


-- 
John
..
My Blog: Mad Gorilla's Jungle:      http://madgorilla.terapad.com/

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