Posted on 03/06/2004 9:06:29 AM PST by sauropod
Good synopsis and reviews on the Amazon link. The Father/Son authors were on C-SPAN last year. I still remember Frank Schaeffer describing his journey to Parris Island for John's graduation from Basic Training.
This guy absolutely nails it.
He certainly does. Put another way, just before WWII:......."People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell.
It's not that the "ready rough men" are any rougher, it is that those who peaceably sleep, work, study, have become softer.
http://www.frankschaeffer.net/pages/1/index.htm
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SchaefferMyHeart.htm
...Some of us served. Many, including me, did not. Vietnam was our excuse. I say excuse because since that war ended, the upper classes - especially the most educated - never regained any sense of moral obligation to serve, let alone the desire to see their children volunteer......The absence of the educated and wealthy elite from our military exacerbates the sense that something un-American and unfair is going on when "my kid" gets sent to war and "rich kids" do not. A country where fairly shared sacrifice is the norm might be less apt to breed groups like Speak Out...
...when 19 hijackers killed 3,000 Americans one bright morning...parents looked around, as if waking from a dream, and fervently hoped there were a few good men and women selfless and strong enough to shoulder an 80-pound pack and sling on an M-16 to defend the rest of us...
...We went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The military performed brilliantly. But the war was not over in 15 minutes. It wasn't cut to the pace of a TV commercial. Disney had not supplied a happy ending. Our elites did not like to see our military force used. Our war was fought on the ground, not with cruise missiles. Our attention wandered. Some military parents grew impatient. When where their children coming home? What the hell was this word "sacrifice" supposed to mean?...
...Like myself, most military parents honor the fact that our children took an oath to serve. Most of us are more patient than members of the chattering classes who write editorials about how our American policy is failing in the Middle East. Most of us know that even if it does fail, we must still try to transform the breeding grounds of hopelessness, terror and oppression into places where freedom and human rights are given a chance...
...I think most military parents feel as I do, though maybe the press doesn't quote us as often as it trumpets the fears of a few oversolicitous hand-wringing military "soccer moms" (and dads) wailing "Be careful!" as their sons and daughters try to defend us. I hope such parents come to understand that they are putting our children at risk by making us look weak and divided to terrorists who already dismiss us as soft.
Hmmmmmm. I guess its only the unpatriotic parents who dare to question why their children are being sent to kill and die.
God bless these parents for fighting for freedom!
One way to look at it. I now feel that, though drafted, the U.S.Army helped me become what I was doubtful about being. The self-confidence a hitch with Uncle Sam confers upon a young persons life is priceless.
When I returned from recruit training in 1985, my girlfriend’s father and every other friend’s father who had never served said to me at one time or another, "You know I always thought about joining up." Every friend’s father who had served, whether for a year or two or an extending stint, slapped me on the back and looked at me differently.
I truly believe, the warrior spirit is imbedded in everyman's soul and is too often repressed. Not everyone can serve, but almost every man wishes he had.
Semper Fi, (18+ years and still having fun)
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