3 Good Wars

[ThomWV]

My son and I were cutting firewood this afternoon. It may come as a surprise to some, but you can do a lot of daydreaming with a chainsaw in your hands. Between cutting and dragging and stacking, during the quiet times, we chatted about Afghanistan. I was in Viet Nam for a long time, my mid-30's son was fortunate enough not to have served and has no first-hand knowledge of war. That suites me just fine.

I suggested to him that this country had only been involved in three wars that were, to my mind, legitimate and that we certainly were not in one of them now. First we had our Revolution. We could not have existed without that war and so it is a given that it was a necessary war. Next came the war of 1812, when we were invaded by Britain and repelled them in what might be thought of as a continuation of the Revolution. The next war we entered with good reason was the 2nd World War. We were, after all, attacked by the Japanese and Germany declared war on us the next day. It could hardly be said our involvement in that was was illegitimate. That was, however, the last one.

As for the grotesque messes we have created in Iraq, Afghanistan, and indeed Pakistan those should have been solved half a decade ago by police and diplomatic action with little to no involvement by our military.

With that said, Stihl, we had work to do.

[mdmc]

1. burn that wood

,,

[gimama]

2. cuttin' firewood.. "Warms You, TWICE!"

That's what I used to tell MY Son, when I lived off the grid for many years..
Apparently, I used to tell Him EVERY time We cut wood..
He still jokes,"Yeah, yeah,warms Ya TWICE!"

(the whole quote is:"Warms You, TWICE,
once when You cut it,then,when You burn it")

AnyWay,YES! YOU can solve all the World's problems & Your OWN, with a chainsaw at Work.. I agree about the 3 wars, mostly..

Most important, CHERISH the Memory You made with Your Son, cuttin' haulin', stackin' that wood!

ps. I still look sideways at wood piled on the curb for trash truck (?!) to haul away! ;)

[Goldstein1984]

3. Well written. Thank you.

My youngest son is in the Army, and my older son has decided to join after the holidays. They have romantic ideas about wars and why people fight them.

I served after Vietnam, but my squadron was engaged in support of assorted "advisory" missions in Central America. Like Vietnam, nothing we did was necessary. We were just butting into other people's business because there was a "national interest" in doing so. Most of the time, we never really understood who was taking potshots at us, or why they deserved what they received in return. My experience since tells my I probably would have been on their side. I have been, since then, a pacifist.

Major General Smedley Butler had it right: "War is a racket."

[Thothmes]

4. May want to rethink the War of 1812

We unilaterily declared war against Great Britian in 1812, invaded Canada in 1813 and the British landed on the East Coast in 1814. We could have settled all issues with the Brits, if we did not have our eyes on Canada. Would offer up that American Civil War as a "good" war. Without it, up to 15% of the American population could still be held as chattle slaves. JMO