> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> While I hope you didn't mean it, Ticia, I think this is a remarkably
> offensive way to describe the men and women of the American armed forces,
> probably days before they enter into battle.
[snip]
> I have been variously described as a
> warmonger
> and a jingoist on this list in the past few days - most often, I'd be
> willing to bet, by people who know few or none of the soldiers who will
> soon be risking their lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, or some other
> Godforsaken
> spot on the planet.
Perhaps you'll understand that I think it is offensive that you presume that
few of the rest of us would have anything to do with people in the military
or know what it means to go into harm's way. I am quite sure that many,
many of us have relatives and friends with military experience, who fought
in WWII, Vietnam and elsewhere. And I'm quite sure that there are people
here who have a lot more personal experience in harm's way than you do,
unless you have been keeping quiet about that.
This is not about whether or not you understand; I'm sure you do to some
extent. It is about your presumption that hardly anyone else does. If
you've never had to bury a friend who died to save others, never had to wash
other peoples' blood off your own hands, face and uniform, perhaps you
shouldn't be so quick to pass judgment. Knowing people in the service is
not the same as having known what it means to serve, to know the real costs.
Sorry to be so graphic, but it would be a kindness to acknowledge, strongly,
that there are aspects of this that you cannot personally understand.
Nick
