Comments for Fighting the Iraq War...at Home at http://www.pacificfreepress.com , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.pacificfreepress.com Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:17:49 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/362-fighting-the-iraq-warat-home.html#comment-262 David, I'm a Vietnam veteran (31 May 1967 to 31 May 1968) and served at a medical evacuation hospital in Cam Ranh Bay, which was situated on arid peninsula of towering sand dunes that jutted into the South China Sea. So although I was a non-combatant, I treated a lot of wounded grunts from the major battles ( Con Thien, Dak To, Khe Sanh, Dong Ha Phu Bai, Hue, etc.) in the decisive turning point of the war, the Tet Offensive of 1968. His response to your T shirt was typical of a jarhead. They're just that way, always have, always will be. Marines are so gung ho for the corps. But I wouldn't worry about him taking off your head the next time in the gym. He's just part of Uncle Sam's lean, green, fighting machine. And you are to his eyes a lowly and cowardly civilian. But that's his problem not yours. He won't get violent with you. He has been potty-trained to respect all authority in a uniform, so he would really be reeling if you decided to call a local policemen to intervene on your behalf. I could tell the marines on the ward were recovering from their wounds when they would start to pick fights with me. Grunts really look down on fellow soldiers in the rear with the gear. It's part of the pecking order of machismo in their minds. Well, this grunt started to make fun of me in front of the other grunts about this and that. I turned to him and said something like, "I'm really sorry you fell for all that John Wayne bullshit and now you realize that you're holding a big burlap bag of shit labeled Vietnam. I hope you make it through your tour. But I volunteered for the medical corps because I had real misgiving about taking another human being's life. But I'm here and I'm serving. So cut the fucking whining." And if he did violent with me, I would have punched his clock into the middle of nexr week. He shut up and never bothered me again. That's what grunts respond to, that macho bullshit that they took hook, line and sinker into their mouths like fish caught by fishermen. So that marine is really whining to you. And even though I am a war veteran, I have to say that I have very little sympathy for him. Some people learn the easy way what life is all about; and some learn the hard way what life is all about. He's in the second category. All I can tell you, David, is that after my discharge, I am a hardcore civilian, love indoor plumbing and to this day detest camping in the great outdoors. I am so thankful to go out of bed in the morning under my own free will, because my arms and legs are attached to my torso. I thought the invasion and occupation of Iraq would eventually be a foreign policy debacle like the Vietnam War. In a heated debate in the van ride after work, a woman around my age called me a traitor and told me I should leave the country if I don't love it. I found her attitude rather ironic, given that I am a war veteran and she was one of the baby boomers back home. And sadly I have been right. I take no comfort in that last sentence. I hate war. I learned the hard way. But at least I learned. Some people never do. I feel sorry for that grunt, but it's a volunteer armed forces. I hope he gets his shit together and goes on with his life. If he has no idea what a disaster this war is after two tours of duty, he may just be beyond hope or redemption. I hope and pray he isn't. But that's all I can say about the matter. - george hoffman Sun, 03 Dec 2006 20:38:05 +0100 http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/362-fighting-the-iraq-warat-home.html#comment-255 You start out by telling us: "I had just gotten to the gym yesterday, and had started on the treadmill, when a barrel-chested young former marine recently returned from a second tour in Iraq walked past. Looking at my shirt, which sports the slogan "No US War on Iraq" on the front, and a peace sign on the back, surrounded with the number of U.S. dead in the war. . . ." And you end by telling us: "Back in late 2003, I wrote a piece about this same shirt, which I bought and began wearing on the day of the Iraq invasion. I had observed that when I first wore it in March 2003, it mostly elicited angry denunciations and hand gestures from people caught up in the blind jingoism of the moment, but that by late September, just six months into the war, the majority of people who saw the shirt had positive comments. Over the years, as the war has become even more of a disaster, the shirt, despite becoming pretty seedy looking from long use, has become increasingly popular. . . ." So I have a question: If you bought the shirt and started wearing it on the day the U.S. invaded Iraq, how is it that the shirt has the number of Americans KIA on the back? If you bought the shirt on the day the U.S. invaded Iraq, there were as yet no U.S. casualties to count. So maybe you should rewrite or rethink what you've written? And you should certainly clarify -- or retract. - Jimmy Montague Sun, 03 Dec 2006 04:17:28 +0100 http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/362-fighting-the-iraq-warat-home.html#comment-253 Greetings again, Dave; I just can't agree Amnericans have learned anything. I also don't believe this Iraq excursion is anything but an extension of long-standing U.S. policies to enrich corporate friends, while thinning the excess populations of colour in both the Homeland, and those places the avenging forces of justice are deployed. Bush, etc. have profited handsomely so far from this, and continue to do so. The domestic economy is in tatters, another plus for the monied classes, and whatever the next administration does, by of contrition to the locals, it will not pay reparations to those wronged, nor whill it hesitate to repeat this grim economic model on the next "Hitler." I wonder, will the bullet-headed, Saxon mother's son you encountered, and his buddies returned, psychic victims of the crimes they committed, if not willingly, then determinedly, ever put two and two together, a la the Oklahoma City bomber, and target those truly responsible for the deaths of their comrades? - lex Sun, 03 Dec 2006 02:37:08 +0100 http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/362-fighting-the-iraq-warat-home.html#comment-248 Good piece, David. Thank you. - winter Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:45:04 +0100