You know, people witness (through television) the actions and behaviors of our military at war and reminisce about the past and talk about how the "country of our grandfathers doesn't exist anymore," or how things today appear to be on the twisted path, or how the Geneva Convention is supposed to codify the end-all-be-all of warfare mannerism.
Let's take a moment to examine briefly the environment of our grandfathers...
Our grandfathers didn’t have to contend with a global leftist (our enemies back then, by the way) attitude that whatever he does is wrong. There was no media that focused primarily on being a global citizen rather than show his own country a bit of loyalty. He did not have to worry about what others may think about his conduct or how it will end his career if he’s not careful. No civilians shoved into his world to demand perfection and then complain when TV doesn’t show it. His politicians were actually creative and exhausted all means of diplomacy before he called upon the military to do the job for him. Nor did our grandfathers have to suffer through those same politicians, who originally failed at diplomacy, grab microphones later and protest for a diplomatic solution. His enemy played nice and wore uniforms and hailed from nations that claimed them. And the prisoners of war gathered by our grandfathers were treated as prisoners of war…not guests. Hollywood was full of veterans and the movies depicted American soldiers favorable and without the vicious attempts to drag them through the mud. And two atomic drops over Japan later we call them the “Greatest Generation.”
We’ve come a long way as a civilization. Today, our soldiers have to deal with not only a global left determined to hate them for what they stand for, but stomach American enemies on our own soil. The burden of warfare suffered personally by the serviceman is now a living room entertainment source for the masses who refrain from service. The media sees any military stumble as a cash cow. Our politicians know as much about military service as they do about today’s enemy, but this certainly doesn’t stop them from thrusting the military into situations it is ill prepared for going back to the 90s. And of course, our military can’t possible be successful on its own. As Pelosi informs us, Iran turned Iraq around not the sweat, blood, and determination of our military (showing us how far our politicians disdain military service and would rather offer an enemy a pat on the back than their own citizens in unifrorm). Today, our soldiers have to be mindful of the media cameras because any ungentlemanly conduct has the civilian population screaming for the enemy’s justice and the end of the U.S. military man’s career. Our prisoners of war receive religious rights, three square meals a day, living quarters, continuous civilian inspectors, and lawyers (and God help the military if the enemy prisoner smells bacon in the morning). Hollywood portrays our military as hapless victims of corporate greed or mentally or physically wounded beyond repair because of their profession. From Rambo shooting up a civilian town to the blunders of Black Hawk Down, all the way up to Stop Loss we see clearly where Hollywood’s making their military exploiting money. Where are the Audey Murphy’s and the John Waynes today? For that matter, where are the overwhelming films coming out of Hollywood today depicting the damage of WWII vets? I guess the Greatest Generation gets a clean bill of health while later generations military servicemen receive disgust and pity.
The “Greatest Generation” had the benefit of belonging to a civilization that trusted it’s military. It was allowed to win. It was allowed to do what was necessary to bring victory to the American people. Today’s generation has to fight through the American boos in an attempt to force them into receiving any kind of success. And the reason is because we have gone from a culture that cared more about winning to a culture that cares more about what we may look like. We sacrifice success at every turn because our focus is more on appeasing people who, frankly, do not matter because they don't have a stake in our protection and security. Our military is constantly denied what it demands it needs. And then it is criticized by civilian, media, and politician for not performing magic. We are even accused of genocide and slaughter, not for what we do, but because Muslims find it historically trendy to kill each other on grand scales. Funny how two atomic bombs over civilian cities in 1945 are attributed to the “Greatest Generation.” You see, our grandfathers understood what it took to win. They understood that defeating an enemy meant convincing him of his defeat. Today, we expect to spare our enemy death’s fate in hopes that peace will come through our “goodness.” We expect our military to restrain themselves to the strictest codes and laws of war in history even if they fly in the face of history’s lessons of victorious military campaigns. We’ve gone from accepting nuclear guarantees of unconditional victories to looking for the possibility of courts martial for our own men if they dare behave less than perfect in combat situations.
This thread is not about Whip Comes Down's service (or lack thereof). Let's get back to the topic at hand.
