A Place to Talk About War

I would like to hear from soldiers who have been in combat situations, from their families, or from others interested in this conversation. I am a graduate student interested in war rhetoric. I have no preset agenda: I simply want to listen, to learn, and to be supportive.

Name:
Location: Texas, United States

Married, two kids. Worked in the defense industry for 20 years before taking a different path. I'll be starting my dissertation on the rhetoric of war in a few months. This semester I am teaching Freshman Composition. I DON'T CARE ABOUT BLOGGERS' SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, OR ANY OTHER GRAMMAR MATTERS--I JUST WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Skip the charade

Friday, January 27, 2006

Please tell me you see the irony in this

Regardless of your political affiliation or opinion on the war in Iraq, I hope you can appreciate the irony of the following statements from Donald Rumsfeld.

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday rejected two new reports--including one ordered by his office--warning that the Iraq war has strained the Army to the breaking point.

In an 'interim assessment' of the Iraq war commissioned by the Office of the Secretary Defense, former Army officer Andrew Krepinevich said the strain of keeping large numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has reduced the Army to a 'thin green line.'"

Mr. Rumsfeld said he hadn't read the 136-page report but "it's clear that those comments do not reflect the current situation. They are either out-of-date or just misdirected."

The Pentagon paid Krepinevich $137,000 to conduct the study, which took 12 months. Regarding the study results, Rumsfeld that said he "suspect[s] that [people writing the reports] don't have any more insight than the other people around here do." When reporters asked why the Pentagon pays consultants for reports if they "lack insight," Rumsfeld replied ,"Well, because the way you get the best knowledge and the best perspective is to listen to people with different views."

It's a Kafkaesque morning this morning.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Do soldiers enlist of their own free will?

My last post was so light-hearted that I decided to follow it up with something more philosophical. I'm reading Kenneth Burke right now, who asserts that, "Freedom to choose requires adequate knowledge of the act's consequences, so that a person must know the consequences involved in making a particular choice. Human beings never can be completely free because they never know the full consequences of their acts."*

So, what level of freedom do soldiers have who enlist thinking that they're going to do local National Guard duty yet get sent overseas? Or WW I American soldiers who think they're going off on a gay adventure in Europe? (I am reclaiming the word gay.) Or enlistees who believe that we're going in for a fast rout, which will be quickly followed by flower-petal parades in their honor?

If you're feeling really philosophical, you can address the level of freedom any humans enjoy.

Let's hear from you!


*paraphrased by Foss, Foss, and Trapp

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Historical War Trivia

On this date, in 1943, the U.S. banned the sale of pre-sliced bread. Post your best guess as to why such bread was banned during World War II, and I'll post the answer after most regular contributors to this blog have weighed in.

All readers welcome!

Friday, January 13, 2006

Who should decide the armor issue?

I'd like to hear your opinions on the body armor issue for soldiers in Iraq. It's the age-old debate of protection versus mobility, and I'm not going to solve it. But I'm interested in who should get to decide. The Pentagon? the American people? Commanding officer on the ground? Individual soldiers?

I could see making a case that each soldier should get to decide if s/he wants to upgrade to the more protective, heavier armor; on the other hand, soldiers are, in effect, government property (it pains me to say that, but I think it's the general idea), and no officer would let his unit go running around without helmets if they chose.

What do you think?

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

The war against ignorance goes on . . .

Let's all look carefully and see if we can help this mom out.

Police Fatally Shoot Mass. Teen Driver
From Associated PressJanuary 10, 2006 6:32 PM EST
Police shot and killed a 16-year-old boy early Tuesday after he drove a car at them while fleeing the scene of a possible burglary attempt, authorities said.

The two officers opened fire, killing Anthony McGrath, following a high-speed chase that started at a liquor store in Plymouth.

"My son got a death sentence," the boy's mother, Denise McGrath, told reporters. "I want to know who killed my son for no reason at all."

The two officers, whose names were not released, were placed on paid administrative leave. The Plymouth district attorney's office is investigating, police Capt. Michael Botieri said.

The alarm at Richard's Wine and Spirits sounded around 3:20 a.m., and as an officer arrived, he saw a vehicle leaving the area, Botieri said. The officer followed with his lights flashing and was joined by another cruiser, he said.

The driver, McGrath, eventually lost control and hit a wall, Botieri said. The officers ordered him out of the car, but he instead backed into one of the cruisers, then accelerated forward, hitting a utility pole and driving toward the two officers, according to Botieri.

The police opened fire, killing McGrath, who was alone in the car.

"It's a tragedy when something like this happens," Botieri said.

The owner of the liquor store, Steve Berg, said a glass door was cracked. "It looked like somebody struck the door with a rock," he told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy.

Yes, it is very sad that this young man threw his life away. My wish for his mom is that her 16 year-old had NOT been out at 3:20 a.m., had NOT been trying to break into a liquor store, had NOT tried to run from the police at high speed, had NOT hit a patrol car, and had NOT driven toward the officers. But he did. And those are the reasons that he was killed.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20060110/43c33f50_3ca6_1552620060110736220554

Sunday, January 08, 2006

RIP, Lt. Thompson, hero of My Lai

First Lieutenant Hugh Thompson Jr. died of cancer Friday at the age of 62. As some of you may remember, Thompson and his crew "came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai. They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings."

His two crew members, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, provided cover for Thompson as the confronted "the leader of the U.S. forces." (I assume the news is referring to Lt. William Calley here.) You can read the whole article at the link below, but a few things of note now:
  • He was initially reviled after the incident became known. "Fellow servicemen refused to speak with him. H e received death threats and found animal carcasses on his porch . . . a congressman angrily [said] that Lt. Thompson was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai."
  • He served in the Navy from 1961 to 1964.
  • He served in the army from 1966 to 1983, when he retired.
  • While in Viet Nam, he was hit eight times by enemy fire and lost five helicopters in combat. A combat crash broke his back. He was awarded a Purple Heart and the Distinguished flying Cross.
  • Thompson, Colburn, and Andreotta were finally awarded the Soldier's Medal, "the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy," in 1998. (Andreotta had been killed three weeks after My Lai.)
  • Seymour Hersh, who won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his report on the massacre, called Thompson "one of the good guys . . . You can't imagine what courage it took to do what he did."

Rest in peace.

Here's one link. There are other versions out there.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Well, that didn't take long

Pat Robertson Links Sharon Stroke, God's Wrath. http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20060105/43bca7d0_3421_1334520060105-54917653

Is there anyone out there who didn't see this one coming?

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Corruption in Washington? I am shocked!

I wish I could be more outraged about Jack Abramoff and his buddies on Capitol Hill, but I guess cynicism has gotten the best of me.

Is he a disgusting slimebag who deserves to go to jail? Yep. Are the politicians who took his money and performed favors in return disgusting slimebags who need to be kicked out? Yep. Is the name of his organization--Grassroots Interactive--a tad ironic? Yep. But did anyone truly believe that Democrats had a lock on sleaze, or that Republicans were truly all about those "values" we heard so much about?

Money/politics/power--without an internal code of moral conduct, no politician from any party is necessarily going to do the right thing. To take it on faith that members of one party are inherently more upright than those of the other is just foolishness.