Morning Coffee (54)

I wish I were having coffee with you this morning.

I have a headache. And my back hurts (when doesn't it?). It's 0640, and I'd already much rather be in couch sleeping. Or at least home doing nothing of interest. I mean, I do that here, so why not at home?

I'd rather be having coffee with you this morning.

Huge anti-war protest in DC. That's good. People should use their right to free speech. I honestly never thought I'd see this sort of thing though. I never wanted to see the sort of thing my dad saw growing up: massive anti-war protests, Jane Fonda making herself look silly, veterans wearing their medals while trashing their service, protesters spitting in the faces of troops coming home from war. But each day, it seems that we come closer to seeing just the sort of things my dad saw growing up. There's a right way, and a wrong way to protest something that you're against. I thought that maybe we had learned something from the 60s and 70s. We haven't.

People will always misinterpret, misunderstand, see through rose colored glasses, or just simply perceive things wrongly. You cannot stop it. So, I generally don't take offense to the stuff I hear or read people saying about the war or politics in general. They simply see things differently than I do. Perhaps wrongly, perhaps not. So when Rev Graylan Hagler says, "When we voted it was a directive to bring the troops home now," I sort of chuckle. I don't recall the election being hinged upon the immediate return of US troops, and if Rev Hagler voted for a person because the basis of his or her campaign was the immediate return of US troops, then Rev Hagler failed to make responsible use of his vote. When Tassi McKee, former Staff Sergeant in the Air Force, says, "I BELIEVE [stress added by me] this has become a civil war, and we are being hurt and making matters worse by staying in the middle of it," I simply smile the smile of the knowing and feel pity that Sergeant McKee's understanding of all things is primitive and cannot be helped. And I will address this buffoonery - what does a mere Staff Sergeant, whose military occupational specialty is unknown to the reader, have to say about the war? What information is she basing her "belief" on beyond the stuff she hears on TV and reads on her favorite internet news sites? Is this the sort of belief one has in a deity, where one is apt to suspend belief in other areas to continue belief in one? An opinion Sergeant McKee is entitled to, yes. And it needn't even be informed. But if she desires to influence the minds of others, then she needs more than a simple gut feeling, a queasiness in the stomach that we are making things worse. I wish we could leave, so McKee could witness the subsequent slaughter of Iraqi Shiites, Iraqi Sunnis, and Kurds by each other. So she could witness Iran's take-over of southern Iraq and war break out between the newly independent Kurdistan and Turkey and Iran. So she could witness genocide, and maybe even the catalyst of World War Three, all from the comfort of her Bastrop, LA, couch.

Former Marine Sergeant Jack Teller, 26, wears his olive green flight jacket during his time at the protest. He doesn't like wearing it, "because it reminds me that I participated in an immoral and illegal war." When Mr. Teller says those things, and follows it up with, "but it's important to make a political statement," I cannot help but smile. This is a man who thinks for himself, a man who makes logical conclusions based on his perception of reality. What's more: He's made himself a mere "political statement." He's nothing more now. Immoral…Illegal…two very bad things. But morality is in the eye of the beholder. And illegal? Well, if that's the case then there are a lot of Congressmen and Senators that need to be arrested. I'm not privy to Teller's motivations; and they're likely self-serving in some manner or another. But if I were to see him, I would tell him that it's not his responsibility to worry about whether or not he fought in an illegal or immoral war. History will judge that. But it will not judge him so long as he conducted himself with honor. He should remember the creed that warriors are to follow: "Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die." We don't make policy, we execute it. If you don't like that thought, don't join my beloved Corps. Some of you might know, that when the chips are down, and the complaining starts, USMC stands for "U Signed the Motherf@#*ing Contract." No one forced you to do so. Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die.

Annie Yanowitz laments that the war has been going on longer than her 2 year old daughter has been alive (2 years is such a long time, no?). She complains that Cheney says it will be a 50-year war. She says, "I find it totally inappropriate that our children may grow up with this war continuing." It's times like this that I question the ability of public schools to fully educate our citizens. Once upon a time, there was a thing called the "Cold War." It lasted 50 years. And another time, there was this thing called the "100 Years War." The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage ran well over 100 years. Yanowitz fails to realize that Cheney does not mean "war" as in the sort of WWII constant battles kind of war, more like Cold War. She's foolish, because it's quite likely that Annie Yanowitz' life goes on as if there isn't a war going on. Little Amira will probably be oblivious to any war for a long time. She won't go without chocolate, as they did in WWII. No food rationing. No draft when she turns 18. Some of the foolish things people say I find remarkable.

Finally, I want to address the case of Corporal Joshua Sparling of the 82nd Airborne Division who served in Ramadi, Iraq. Sparling lost his right leg below the knee. An anti-war protester spit at the ground of Corporal Sparling who was counter-protesting with a group nearby. Some fool SPIT at the feet of one of my comrades. Forty years ago, we had the 60s, and they are returning to us. This act, this spiting makes me ill. Have we no decency? Spartans were not spit upon by their kin. Romans with disfiguring injuries were not spit upon by their fellow citizens. These are our soldiers, the defenders of our nation. Elect new leaders if you don't like what you've got, but do not soil the honor of these men and women. Their's was not to question why, their's was but to do or die.

I hope you see my point here, as oblique as it is. I'm not saying, "MORE WAR!" I'm critiquing the misinformed and unintelligent things people say. I'm not defending this war, although I feel that leaving would be bad. I hope you get my point.

Why can't I be having coffee with you rather than here?

Word of the Day: Cohort (noun): 1. a group or band of people; 2. a companion; an associate; 3. a group of people sharing a common statistical factor (as age or membership in a class) in a demographic study; 4. (Roman Antiquity) a body of about 300-600 soldiers; the tenth part of a legion; 5. any group of warriors. A Roman legionary cohort usually had 480 men, and it was 1/10 of a legion's order of battle (not sure what they mean by the "tenth part." The First Cohort, the most elite in a legion and the bearer of the legion's standard (aquila - legionary eagle) was normally double strength.

On This Day in History: First assassination attempt against a US president (Andrew Jackson). The assassins pistols misfire, and Jackson then beats the man with his cane (1835). Now that's a president. US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes (1989). It has since reopened, bullet holes and all; I worked in it for six months. Now there's a new one.

"Hold me now I feel contagious. Am I the only place, that you've left to go? She cries her life is like some movie black and white. Dead actors faking lines over and over and over again…"