thedrifter
03-04-07, 08:14 AM
War should be obsolete, but it's not
Sunday, March 04, 2007
By STEVE BURTT The Mississippi Press
There was a time when I thought war was surely becoming obsolete.
They had Kentucky Fried Chicken in Peking and McDonald's hamburgers in Moscow.
How could we possibly go to war, I reasoned, with a country that has so much of its economic development tied to the United States?
I guess I was a bit naive. And I should know better.
I remember a conversation I had with a friend when I was a junior in high school. He was really eager to get out of school and get into this thing in some far away place called Vietnam. I told him it would be long over by the time we graduated.
Of course, it did not go away. That boy I was talking with, Robert Smith, became a Marine and was killed in combat in Vietnam in 1968, less than a year after we graduated. His picture is on the wall at the memorial in Ocean Springs.
I joined the Marines a year after that and served a tour in Vietnam. That seems so very, very long ago, but there are so many similarities with what we are doing today in Iraq, that I am frequently taken back in time to that war.
And then there's another, more pressing, personal concern that I have. My son, Alex, who is only 12, asked me the other day how old you had to be to join the Marines.
My heart raced as I carefully asked if that was something he thought he would like to do. I was trying so hard not to say all the things I wanted to say. A father wants to give advice, sure, but it should be done with wisdom, not emotion. I would have to do it without pressing, without judgment, without sheer terror in my voice.
So I just listened calmly and remembered that all wars are fueled by the adventuresome and spirit of young men and women.
It would be easy to laugh that off and think that surely we won't be bogged down in the Middle East when he gets old enough to enlist. But we all know that's just not true. Poor leadership -- or the lack of it -- got us there and will keep us there.
So, as I watch the debate in Congress over the failed war policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney, it's personal. And I can't help wondering why we didn't learn those same lessons in Vietnam.
I was disappointed the other day that my representative, Gene Taylor, failed to support a resolution condemning the president's plan to send more troops into harms way. Taylor envisions a two-year plan to get the troops home.
Well, that would make Alex 14, and I guess I like that.
But wait a minute. We're talking government timetables here. We're talking about political debate. It would take two years to get it legislated and two years to get it implemented and two years to actually move the troops. We did all that mess in Vietnam.
Yes, war should be obsolete, but it's not. And as I watch the world situation and the useless, endless debate in Congress, I have no idea where to place my hope for the future.
Correspondent Steve Burtt can be reached at sburtt@bellsouth.net or at (22 872-7726.
Ellie
Sunday, March 04, 2007
By STEVE BURTT The Mississippi Press
There was a time when I thought war was surely becoming obsolete.
They had Kentucky Fried Chicken in Peking and McDonald's hamburgers in Moscow.
How could we possibly go to war, I reasoned, with a country that has so much of its economic development tied to the United States?
I guess I was a bit naive. And I should know better.
I remember a conversation I had with a friend when I was a junior in high school. He was really eager to get out of school and get into this thing in some far away place called Vietnam. I told him it would be long over by the time we graduated.
Of course, it did not go away. That boy I was talking with, Robert Smith, became a Marine and was killed in combat in Vietnam in 1968, less than a year after we graduated. His picture is on the wall at the memorial in Ocean Springs.
I joined the Marines a year after that and served a tour in Vietnam. That seems so very, very long ago, but there are so many similarities with what we are doing today in Iraq, that I am frequently taken back in time to that war.
And then there's another, more pressing, personal concern that I have. My son, Alex, who is only 12, asked me the other day how old you had to be to join the Marines.
My heart raced as I carefully asked if that was something he thought he would like to do. I was trying so hard not to say all the things I wanted to say. A father wants to give advice, sure, but it should be done with wisdom, not emotion. I would have to do it without pressing, without judgment, without sheer terror in my voice.
So I just listened calmly and remembered that all wars are fueled by the adventuresome and spirit of young men and women.
It would be easy to laugh that off and think that surely we won't be bogged down in the Middle East when he gets old enough to enlist. But we all know that's just not true. Poor leadership -- or the lack of it -- got us there and will keep us there.
So, as I watch the debate in Congress over the failed war policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney, it's personal. And I can't help wondering why we didn't learn those same lessons in Vietnam.
I was disappointed the other day that my representative, Gene Taylor, failed to support a resolution condemning the president's plan to send more troops into harms way. Taylor envisions a two-year plan to get the troops home.
Well, that would make Alex 14, and I guess I like that.
But wait a minute. We're talking government timetables here. We're talking about political debate. It would take two years to get it legislated and two years to get it implemented and two years to actually move the troops. We did all that mess in Vietnam.
Yes, war should be obsolete, but it's not. And as I watch the world situation and the useless, endless debate in Congress, I have no idea where to place my hope for the future.
Correspondent Steve Burtt can be reached at sburtt@bellsouth.net or at (22 872-7726.
Ellie