The Failed President and the New "Greatest Generation" by Frank Schaeffer at Huff Post

[applegrove]

The Failed President and the New "Greatest Generation"
by Frank Schaeffer
Huffington Post
December 8, 2006


"September 2, 2003, 1AM, John called.

"Did I tell you I got shot at by a kid?" John asked.

Genie stifled a gasp. My heart was flip-flopping.

"No," Genie and I said.

"It was weird," said John with a chuckle. "I was out, you know working, and we hear this shot and turn around and this kid is running away carrying some sort of old muzzle-loaded gun that looks as if it's from the eighteen hundreds."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"What?" I exclaimed.

"What do you expect me to do," John answered, "put a bullet between some kid's eyes? He looked like he was about ten. Anyway he dropped the gun and ran."

..........SNIP"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/the-failed-president-and-_b_35863.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. The article is about the suffering of military families, and their taking the

impacts of the war on Iraq, while the political and upper classes are disconnected from them. There is no sense of "we're all in this together." It also speaks of the young people who wanted to serve their country by going to war as "the greatest generation," despite the failures in Washington.

I think they COULD be "the greatest generation"--if they come home and put a stop to wars of choice, and out-of-control presidents, and military budgets that create OFFENSIVE military capabilities that are a standing temptation to fascists and global corporate resource predators. If they do THAT--with the help of the rest of us--they will certainly be "the greatest generation." But whether they are or not, remains to be seen. If they continue to permit fascists and war profiteers to use phony patriotism to con people into becoming their "cannon fodder," then we will have generation after generation of young people having to endure hardship, maiming and death--and bitter disillusionment--for no worthy cause, and they will not be great at all; they will be sheep.

I always admire courage--both physical and mental--and genuine love of country. I would never put these young people down, who went off to war because they felt that duty called them. But next to them--equally deserving of medals--are those who stood up, often against withering scorn, and worse--threats to their lives and careers--and opposed this war: Those who have refused to serve, or refused to return to a war they considered criminal (and who have suffered jail); the military jag lawyers who stood against torture; the insiders like Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame and Richard Clarke who opposed the invasion of Iraq, at great cost to themselves; and the heroic politicians who voted against it (125 members of the Anthrax Congress), as well as individuals such a Cindy Sheehan and Ned Lamont and John Murtha, who have fought particularly difficult battles for national and media attention on this horrendous disaster, before it was popular to do so; the many individuals who protested in countless ways, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators and activists, and--last but not least--the FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of the American people (a number that necessarily includes some Republicans) who opposed this war from the beginning (Feb. '03), before the invasion.

We ALL deserve praise for doing what we thought was best for our country. And we all deserve some blame for failing to attend to the power mechanisms in a democracy by which such huge disasters are supposed to be prevented--particularly our right to vote and the integrity of our elections. The youngsters in the military are the least to blame for this. It is us oldsters--including all of us who go back to the Vietnam era--and all citizens with maturity and experience, who deserve some admonishment for our failures as citizens. But we also deserve some pity, as we all watched in horror, and in helplessness, as our country was plunged into fascism and depravity.

The article cited above is a bit defensive. It's about military parents who are now trying to ennoble their children's patriotism and sacrifice, despite a failed war. It is understandable, and I won't say it's undeserved. It's just that perhaps they should encourage more questioning in their children, rather than praising them for dutifully following the orders of the greedy and psychotic leaders who perpetrated this horror. If more military people had openly opposed it, maybe we wouldn't be where we are today--and it's not over yet. Young people are STILL being led to the slaughter. Is calling them "the greatest generation" not encouraging Bush and Cheney to "stay the course"--providing them with yet more willing and unquestioning foot soldiers for their insane scheme of dominating the Middle East? I question it. I think it has the wrong emphasis. Courage and bravery and duty, yes--but loyalty to WHAT? To an American Roman Empire? To the Corporate Rulers behind Bush and Cheney? To the oil giants? To global corporate predators? To war profiteers? The young people who join the military--and the older ones within it, including all the higher ranks--really and truly need to ask these questions. What IS the US military FOR? Wars of aggression and invasion? Or defense?

[applegrove]

2. Well that very crossover is what the author is hoping for. And that

that sort of education of the public can sometimes only come from people who have been there. That war is bad. The first Iraq war was too easy. Not necessarily a war of choice. But you hope these kids coming home take up their role in educating the country. And many have. There was a narrative that got to the public a few years after the Vietnam war..through movies and films. These were the soldiers stories. Let us hope that when they finally come hope the neocons and bat-shit crazy WH are no longer in power (or the WH is no longer in GOP hands) because they know very well what narrative is and will try and turn this war into their own story..like they did at the start. If the soldiers don't speak up..how can you battle the WH narrative? What will come out of the mouths of young men and women once they are discharged and feel free and grown up enough to speak out. The author hopes it is the story like the one posted. It took Oliver Stone a good decade to come out with Platoon. There is enough room for all the stories. Just so long as there is no vacuume from the soldiers. Like there is now at times.