Well, if Kerry had thrown away his Vietnam medals many veterans would have understood why. I landed at the Oakland Naval Base in mid 1970 and if you'd looked in the trash can where I changed into blue jeans and a t-shirt, you'd have found an Army dress uniform and the same medals that Kerry had, along with all the certificates that went with them. It was the only protest I made and no one but me was there to appreciate it, and I've never regretted it. I remember what it's like to fight to attempt to keep your buddies and yourself alive in spite of the best efforts of men who value the lives of those that are on the front as if they are checkers on a chess board, and never go or send their own to fight and die.
I think a week in Iraq wearing a bullseye, with the prospect of another year or so ahead of them, might just adjust the attitudes of Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz or even the great and courageous hunter, Johannes Pilch. When their buddies started bleeding and screaming their lives away beside them, then maybe they'd learn to require a higher standard of certainty that the war satisfy the cost-benefit analysis of men with something to lose. It's so much easier when it's someone else's arm, leg, nightmares, child or life, isn't it? |
