Monday, February 26, 2007

Another lie

In the movie "Sir! No Sir!" one of the veterans decides to investigate the claims that returning veterans from Vietnam were greeted by spitting anti-war protesters. Even though this was, and still is, a common tale - it is just a urban legend. It did not happen, not once, as far as he could determine. Oh, it is was always supposed to be young women who did the spitting, even though, generally women don't spit at all. I heard this myth presented as fact at a Democratic Party State Executive Committee meeting. It was offered up as a reason not to vote on a resolution saying that we need to get out of Iraq.

Funny reasoning there - we need to keep our troops in Iraq, where they will get killed, injured, and f*cked up for life - because if we pull them out now they (supposedly) would get treated with disrespect. Personally, I would think being treated with disrespect would be better than dodging bullets and bombs. And I would choose being treated with disrespect, even to the point of being spit on, as a vast improvement in helping to kill my fellow humans. I would see it as a much better alternative to engaging in immoral activities of any kind. Maybe I just have funny ideas about what is "fun" in life.

Not that I think it is okay to treat people with disrespect. I do not. But I fail to see it as such a horror as some of our veterans do.

But, here is something I don't get. Our soldiers and Marines go off to war, face blood and guts and death and pain and horror beyond belief. They get CIBs pinned on them. And then they come home and whine about not getting treated with "respect" like they are the biggest wimps on the planet.

I just don't get it.

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