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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FaultLine who wrote (50832)	10/10/2002 1:29:13 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

World War II Veteran William Manchester Speaks Out... [William Manchester is a twice-injured World War II veteran and author of 18 books, including Goodbye Darkness, a war memoir.] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally published October 10, 2002 The Baltimore Sun I just had a reunion with the survivors of my Marine Corps outfit in World War II, six of them. They came from Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Maryland. We were together 58 years ago in combat. This was the third reunion we've had. It will probably be our last because we're all getting on. A reporter was there, and he raised the question of what we thought of war with Iraq. We took a vote. All six of us were vehemently against the war. Even the two Republicans. There were different reasons -- one said this war's all about oil -- but the general feeling was that there's no connection between Iraq and al-Qaida that we know of. Also, the timing of this is very suspicious. It comes up just before a congressional election. It's like a diversion. We all felt that we should work with the UN, and not go it alone. There was strong feeling in the group that the Bush administration is made up of men who had an opportunity to serve their country in combat and they declined, and now they want to send other men's sons into battle. We don't approve of that. We call them "chicken hawks." My father was in World War I. He lost his arm. My father was my hero. He was against war. He died when I was 18. He never really recovered from his war wounds. I can remember watching him in the parade on Memorial Day in his uniform. He was in the Marine Corps in World War I, which is why I went into the Marine Corps in World War II. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, I hitchhiked to Springfield, Mass., to join the Marines. I didn't weigh enough so I had to eat a lot of bananas and milk and go back. ... World War II was different than this. It was a declared war. There has been no war declared since then. Most people don't have first hand experience of war They don't understand war. They don't know what it's like. They've never seen a corpse, never seen a friend killed beside them. If you've been in combat you take war very personally. Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun sunspot.net