Feeling a little melancholy tonight. For reasons I don't care to share, today is ...

[11 Bravo]

a pretty shitty anniversary. Yeah, war is Hell, but combat is a real mother-fucker.
Ken Burns captured much of it.
Trust me, over 150 years later, things aren't all that different after the shooting stops. Sure, the pieces may be smaller, but I guarantee you the smell is about the same.

[Cleita]

1. Used to watch the troops being marched down to the piers in San Pedro to

be loaded on to ships to go to the Pacific Theater at the end of WWII. We used to think it was a parade. We were small children then and didn't know any better. I think today about it, poor bastards. Many never made it back. When the war ended there was such joy and a resolve of never again.

When Truman announced sending troops to Korea, I swear I could hear a collective groan down the whole block. None of the adults wanted it from overhearing conversations over the fence and no one really understood why we were doing it. If someone would have told me we would be in perpetual wars in Asia into the next century I wouldn't have believed them.

[jtuck004]

6. It WAS a parade. Look at the videos. Smiles, waving, "gonna get them bastards",

streamers, balloons, etc. That's how we encouraged them on, how we create cannon fodder. We even teach it to the kids in school like that - look at the happy pictures of people going to war. Proud soldiers. They seldom include the pictures of the piece of the arm which is all that was left, just the picture of the parades.

Listen to their stories, how they climbed out of hospital windows to rejoin their comrades after being wounded and taken out of service. My neighbor was one of them, and I knew a lot of others.

There were people here who joined because if you were caught apparently fit but not in the fight you could easily wind up bloody in an alley. Many, if not most, wanted badly to be in that fighting once it started.

Ironic, however. Here we are today, and as bad as we might think people want to avoid it, I suspect if we just put up a parade for people to march off to war in our name there would be folks streaming in from all over just to join.

I'm not even sure we would have to declare an enemy.

[LiberalLoner]

2. ((((Hugs)))) and some hot chocolate with a shot of peppermint schnapps

[lunasun]

3. Take care

[freshwest]

4. Needs to be said.

[blm]

5. ((11 Bravo))

Always.

[BlueJazz]

7. Same lousy song...different stage.

[catchnrelease]

8. Just such a waste

No matter when, always a waste.

That song makes me cry every time I hear it, it's beautiful, but it has such a sad melody.

for you 11 Bravo from the wife of a Vietnam vet.

[bigwillq]

9. I hope you feel better.