In response to
“The 9-11 Generation”TO: Dean Barnett
C/O: The Weekly Standard
Dear Sir:
As a
Baby Boomer, I felt compelled to respond to your recent article, “The 9-11 Generation”.
You begin, unbelievably enough, stating that “in the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn't answer the phone.”
Perhaps my memory is faulty as a result of those “Woodstock excesses” you refer to, but I distinctly remember something called Viet Nam as being the “generation-defining conflict”, as opposed to the Cold War. And in case
you’ve forgotten, that phone call was answered.
But there was another
call in those days of watching our classmates coming home in body-bags; a call to put an end to American troops being used to protect corporate interests – or, as is the present case in Iraq, to provide cover for the theft of another nation’s oil resources.
“Few of the leading lights of that generation joined the military. Most calculated how they could avoid military service, and their attitude rippled through the rest of the century.”
If you’re talking about the
leading lights who lied us into the Iraq quagmire – Bush, Cheney and their PNAC pals – you’re absolutely right. Bush used Poppy’s influence to get him into the National Guard,
cushy service as compared to his brother soldiers – and the records proving his completion of that service have, to this day, yet to surface. As for Cheney, the closest he came to answering
the call was filing for his
five deferments.
Of course, there
were many “leading lights” who chose to make the military their career. They went on to distinguish themselves as men who could, based on experience and military training, assess the cost of a war in dollars and blood, determine whether the success of a particular military mission was achievable, and opine on how many troops would be needed to accomplish defined goals.
It’s lamentable that the advice proffered by such “bright lights” was totally dismissed by a Commander-in-Chief who was completely ignorant of military strategy, to be replaced by the advice of the likes of Bill Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, whose own military experience consisted of avoiding same.
You state that present day liberals “support the American military – at least in the abstract, until it does anything resembling fighting a war.” There is nothing
abstract about the liberals’ support for our troops – support that
should include, to our way of thinking, body armour and other life-saving equipment, along with decent pay, generous pensions, and the best care possible for those who return wounded and/or permanently disabled.
It is the so-called support offered by the politicians – the same couch-bound heroes who have continually voted
against such things as raises in pay and increased rest periods away from combat – whose support can only be described as
in the abstract. As they never tire of telling us, it is not what is happening on the ground in Iraq that is bogging us down; it’s the lack of yellow ribbons on our SUVs here at home. Go figure.
“Democratic senators … routinely pronounce their concern for our ‘children’ in Iraq. One of the reasons John Kerry's ‘botched joke’ resonated so strongly was that it fit the liberals' narrative. The Democratic party would have you believe that our soldiers are children or, at best, adults with few options.”
How amusingly ironic that you should invoke the name of John Kerry, a man who
could have “avoided” military service, but instead enlisted and saw combat. I suppose that after
actually serving, he would have a much better sense of who enlists, and why – the reasons, I am sure, being varied and complex. But to pretend that thousands of young adults
don’t enlist because they come from backgrounds where it
is the only option for getting a college education or technical training is, at its best, disingenuous.
As for the Democratic party believing that our soldiers are “children”, it is obvious from their ages that many currently serving
are children. Some have died before ever having experienced life as an adult – getting married, pursuing careers, having children of their own. Some have died before they were even considered
mature enough to drink a beer.
Perhaps the Republicans who cheerlead this war cannot visualize our soldiers as
children simply because the ones doing the fighting aren’t
their children; they are
someone else’s children, kids whose parents don’t belong to the country club, or have summer getaways in places like Kennebunkport.
But you did find and speak to three young men who enlisted and don’t regret that decision. I’m so glad you enlightened us all on that topic, because we liberals and Democrats never thought for a minute that
every member of our armed forces wasn’t in Iraq as a result of being kidnapped and forced to sign-up. Thanks for setting us straight.
Will there be a “9-11 Generation”? Good God, I hope so – because I am confident they will have learned the
real lessons of what happened on September 11th, and how it was used to manipulate the country into relinquishing its freedoms in order to counteract those who allegedly
hate us for those freedoms, while we invaded a country that had nothing to do with our being attacked.
They will undoubtedly look back on the abject failures of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as an inexcusable waste of money and human lives, and will vow that
their children will not be sacrificed for the sake of a handful of greedy oil conglomerates seeking to make even more obscene profits than they’re already raking in.
Having experienced what they have, and seen what they have seen, they will probably grow up knowing that diplomatic avenues produce far better results than can ever be achieved on the battlefield, that compromise is
not equivalent to
surrender, that
nothing of value can ever be realized as a result of who is willing to kill more aggressively, torture more barbarically, or who is willing to apply the term
collateral damage to more innocent civilians.
As for those who are now choosing a military career, let’s hope that should an arrogantly ignorant president ever darken the White House again, their expertise will not be pushed aside to make room for
yes men willing to support the idiotic ideology of those who consider themselves
above the riff-raff who actually served.
But take heart, Mr. Barnett, for your chance to offer your services is now at hand. John Kerry – yes, that pesky decorated war hero who just doesn’t seem to
know his place – stated this week that "it is about time that those promoting this war offered up their own children to fight it, and anyone who themselves are forty and under in the Congress and the Administration …”
It would seem that a telephone
hotline needs to be set-up to handle all of the calls from those gung-ho under-forty Republican politicians who are behind this war, along with their
children who can’t wait to drop their golf clubs and tennis racquets and
heed the call to arms.
Please be so kind as to keep us apprised of the success of this clarion call to the offspring of the rich and politically influential who think that
no sacrifice is too great when it comes to protecting the homeland – and won’t Barbie and Jenna look
great in uniform, standing right alongside the sons and daughters of the oil company executives who are meant to be the
real benefactors of the current
unpleasantness in the Middle East?
Talk about a photo-op to end
all photo-ops – talk about putting your child’s life where your warmongering mouth is – talk about the aforementioned
never coming to pass. Talk about hypocrisy …
Anyway, regardless of how the
invitation to the supporters of this war to actually fight for what they allegedly believe in turns out, I just wanted to thank you for setting the record straight when it comes to the Woodstock-induced mutterings of a generation that, regardless of how many of its own were sacrificed in the name of another
noble cause, are obviously too unpatriotic to unquestioningly follow the lead of those who were
patriotic enough to avoid getting their hands dirty.
Yours Truly,
Nancy Greggs
(Proud US Citizen, and member of the all-too-astute Baby-Boomer Generation)
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