Saturday, December 16, 2006

Pausing

Like everyone else, I've been running around like an idiot, buying gifts and baking and cooking and wrapping and decorating. Then my good friend John Viglianco sent me the following email and it gave me pause. I have not read the John Crawford book that he references herein:

I am reading "The Last True Story I Will Ever Tell". It is a soldier's memoir of his time in Iraq. The synopsis of the book is HATE. Iraqis hate us; our soldiers hate them. The same situation was true for Vietnam. Now, they are hajiis instead of gooks. Maybe you have to hate in order to pull the trigger on your enemy.

This book is full of true horror. If the situation was this futile three years ago, how can we describe the present situation?

This book is guaranteed to make you a Murtha and Kucinich supporter. This is not a book to make you stand up and wave the flag. It hurts to read it.


I have received your message my friend. I'll read the book. I'll hurt.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is still amazing to me how easy it is for some to justify killing people -- for whatever reason, whoever they are.

The Seeker 83 said...

Killing easy? Probably for some. Necessary? Hell yes!...if you want to survive yourself. Imagine sleeping with one eye open--losing all sense of security for weeks, months, years...the trigger would become MY best friend--NO doubt about that.

I don't know how Bush sleeps at night. I hate the war--not our troops. I'm sick of being called a traitor for opposing the war. I'm sick to death of all the death.

Enemy of the Republic said...

Will check it out. The publisher should send audio copies to Bush, since reading isn't one of his specialties.

Hal said...

"Love it or leave it!"

I get so angry whenever I hear anyone say this, and I can't believe that people are still running around and saying this.

Questioning someone's loyalty because they disagree with a policy, in this case a war that doesn't need to be fought.

It is so banal and benign.

Talk about apples and oranges.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox, and say that I will definitely check out this book.

And I will also make a film recommendation. It's called Hearts and Minds. It's about the Vietnam War, but the parallels are chilling.

Bugwit said...

I read it several months ago. The whole thing is heartbreaking. I don;t know why we subject our young men to this stuff.