I have been asked some weird questions in my life, yet the one that always hits me is the infamous "how can you do what you do?" So many people tell me how horrible our government is. They tell me how evil and corrupt that our country is. I have to agree in part with them. It is not the most moral and just system on the planet, but it also the best that is out there. I have been to some pretty shitty countries. I have also been to some good countries. I have seen the effects of most forms of government, first hand. It is not me looking over papers or studying the works of scholars. It is me seeing these things with my own eyes. I also firmly believe that we can enact the changes we feel we need to make this country better. Right now though it is the best thing that can work for us. Some smaller countries might have other systems that work for them, but we have what is best for us.
I also do not do what I do for those simple principles of patriotism alone. I do what I do because of the guys and gals willing to do it with me. I do is because there are things that we do that can not be understood by others. Each generation that suffers the call of war will see it different. There is a moment we all can share, but the actual war you fought in will change the experience you have. It will also change how you deal with those experiences and what they leave behind.
That is the sick indecency of the evolution of war. We come up with different ways to kill each other whenever we decide it is the only way to resolve our issues. With these different tactics and weapons comes different ways to die, and different things the living have to carry with them. World War I brought us the whole sale slaughter of chemical weapons and the numbing rushes on trench after trench. Then we evolved into the World War II with some increase of range, but the additions of the machines of war. Vietnam was the unseen enemy. Korea was the adjustment of power with the introduction of new methods of air power. Iraq brought us IED's and close quarter combat. Afghanistan a mixture of Iraq with a dash of religious fervor and the zealotry of desperation.
The blood has not changed, just the amount and how it is spilled. So each time it has its own separate issue that needs to be addressed. The end results are the same though. Two groups of people decide they can not live with the actions of another, so they send other people out to deal with with. I do this because it is my lot in life, and I have already done it a few times, no reason to hand the burden over to someone else and let them deal with their own variety of damage. So I do this so some other kid with puppy eyes, innocence and a head full of wrong ideas does not have to. I do it because the people who do it with me actually have a shared understanding. I do it because I like the rest of the world do not like being lonely. I do it so I have someone to talk to.
It really is that easy. Sometimes that is all it is.
I also do not do what I do for those simple principles of patriotism alone. I do what I do because of the guys and gals willing to do it with me. I do is because there are things that we do that can not be understood by others. Each generation that suffers the call of war will see it different. There is a moment we all can share, but the actual war you fought in will change the experience you have. It will also change how you deal with those experiences and what they leave behind.
That is the sick indecency of the evolution of war. We come up with different ways to kill each other whenever we decide it is the only way to resolve our issues. With these different tactics and weapons comes different ways to die, and different things the living have to carry with them. World War I brought us the whole sale slaughter of chemical weapons and the numbing rushes on trench after trench. Then we evolved into the World War II with some increase of range, but the additions of the machines of war. Vietnam was the unseen enemy. Korea was the adjustment of power with the introduction of new methods of air power. Iraq brought us IED's and close quarter combat. Afghanistan a mixture of Iraq with a dash of religious fervor and the zealotry of desperation.
The blood has not changed, just the amount and how it is spilled. So each time it has its own separate issue that needs to be addressed. The end results are the same though. Two groups of people decide they can not live with the actions of another, so they send other people out to deal with with. I do this because it is my lot in life, and I have already done it a few times, no reason to hand the burden over to someone else and let them deal with their own variety of damage. So I do this so some other kid with puppy eyes, innocence and a head full of wrong ideas does not have to. I do it because the people who do it with me actually have a shared understanding. I do it because I like the rest of the world do not like being lonely. I do it so I have someone to talk to.
It really is that easy. Sometimes that is all it is.
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