Veterans Day

I have written before about Veterans Day.

I think the final 5 paragraphs may be among the finest I have ever written and I stand by them.

I am at heart a pacifist. I think the Scriptural admonitions to "Insofar as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" and, "the wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable" and "pursue peace and the sanctification without which no man shall see God" and "the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" are pretty clear; peace is a virtue.

Yet somewhat hypocritically, I also believe in a strong military to defend the borders.

But not to be outside the borders.

In the end, I have a very convoluted position where I believe nobody who believes in God should ever be in the military in any position other than medic...maybe chaplain..., yet those who do not believe, have at it.

Keep our soldiers within out borders unless someone invades us.

And wherever our soldiers are at, keep them safe.

If you send someone into combat, there are tools available to make them safer...body armor, communications and surveillance gear, vehicles, numbers...whatever it is...then you have a moral responsibility to do so.

Joseph Stalin thought otherwise. He had a huge population, so they were expendable and he made use of that. Untrained, poorly or completely unarmed, ill-clothed young men died by the millions on behalf of the USSR in World War II. He did not care...they were expendable.

How was that any better than the Germans who sent millions of undesirable...and therefore expendable...people to die in concentration camps? Because they MIGHT be able to pick up a rifle that may or may not have bullets in it when another guy got shot, so MIGHT do some damage before being killed?

And how are we any better if we have soldiers in harms way and do less than our best to ensure they have the best chance of survival, the best chance of good care when some inevitably become shot or bombed or mined?

Iraq and Afghanistan are bad, bad situations. It can certainly be argued...and often has...that we should never have been in either location in the first place. I would say the same for Serbia, Panama, and several other places we have been (and are) that we shouldn't.

But now we have to figure out how to make the best of a situation that exists. Making a second mistake because we made a first one is seldom if ever the right choice.

In no small part, the problems in Afghanistan developed because after we armed and helped them rebel against the Russians, we left them to their own devices. I have seen powerful arguments that much of the rage against the US from some elements in that part of the world were over our perceived abandonment.

So if now, after having removed the experienced leadership, we leave under-trained, underarmed, unprepared people to face the onslaught of the leftovers from the previous regime, are we setting ourselves up to face the same problem in another decade or two, only now with battle hardened people opposing, will we have made an even bigger mistake?

I honestly do not know. In a perfect world, we could bring our soldiers home tomorrow. No more killing. No more wounding. No more orphans and widows and hatred and anger.

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world.

Bringing them home tomorrow could and probably would lead to even more chaos and bloodshed.

What I do know is that, while they are there, regardless of whether they should have been there in the first place or should be there now, they need to be protected and cared for.

To do less is to dishonor them and our entire nation.

On this Veterans Day I guess the best we can do is wish for safety for all concerned and for wiser choices going forward.


It seems like a weak finish to what I think is an important subject. But it also is appropriate, because it refers to how best to correct a probable mistake without making it worse. And that is something that never has anything but a weak answer.

A little matter of slaughter

Among the books I have read recently have been things that studied some interesting eras; the Greek world circa the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries BC. The Greek and Roman worlds from the 4th century BC on up to the 5th century AD. The history of the Americas from the `5th century through the late 19th century. Looks at the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam.



And there is a surprising theme that runs through all of them.



Carnage.



Massive, massive slaughter.



In the Peloponnesian War (fought between Athens and Greece, with a multitude of shifting alliances on each side) there were times when 30 or even 40% of the population of major Greek cities would die, whether from plague or sea-borne warfare.



Other times 95% or more of small or medium size citeis would be completely wiped out.



The Athenians killed the people of a city they had invested. The Spartans responded in kind. Then the Spartans asked for Helot volunteers who had fought for them previously...and promptly killed the 2000 who came forward.



Sea battles saw losses estimated as high as 40,000 people on a side. It has been suggested by some that the slaughter was greater than even the single-day butchers bill at Antietam, the battle toll from Gettysburg, etc.

Nor was that the only slaughter in the ancient world. Far from it. The Romans had their share, both by and against. Their losses at Teutoberg and Cannae spring readily to mind...as do the complete annihilation of Carthage.

Do we even need to look at the Middle Ages? The dark stains on Euro-history from the Crusades are awful.

The US history in warring against the Native Americans is hardly free from massacre. For that matter, our record in peacetime ain't none too good...and it is not just the Trail of Tears to which i refer.

Anyway, the point is that throughout history, there have been instance after instance after instance of indiscriminate slaughter. Massive numbers of slain, often for no particular reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And for all the killing, for all the carnage, devastation, cruelty and mindless destruction, one fact becomes clear.

It never really seems to accomplish anything.

The Peloponnesian War lasted for generations, killing the best and brightest and rendering Greece impotent when the Romans began expanding.

The Romans killed by the thousands in Germany, Britain, and elsewhere. They were killed by the thousands in Italy, Germany, Britain, Persia...and they just kept going...for a while. Eventually the Germanic tribes overcame Rome.

I guess one could argue the horrific war crimes on the Washita and so forth accomplished something, though the murder there was not on quite so grand a scale.

The Russian murder of Poles, the German murder of Jews and "the other", these things accomplished nothing towards helping either win the war.

For that matter, the racial hatred shown in the pacific where the kill rates exceeded those of perhaps any war since the aforementioned Roman wars of annihilation did not win the war, either for the Japanese or for the Allies. It was not until nuclear bombs wiped out even more people and more indiscriminately that the war ended.

So if few wars have ever been won by the mass extermination of huge numbers of the foe (or their non-combatant dependents) has generally led not to peace but rather to more vociferous and effective opposition...why do people keep doing it?

Ah yes, welcome back to the land of clouds and rain. Sitting at airport waiting for max and thinking, "was that guy on the plane the son of Nostrildamus"?

Sad face goes here. At nashville airport

Reason #3 that Steak & Shake is cooler than you; double chocolate fudge shakes with hot fudge. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The many or the few?

Let us preface this by saying...Italy and the European Union are not the United States, nor do things that apply here have the same force as there and vice versa.

At the same time, there are certain principles that apply to both.

Here is an interesting news story.

Obviously, I have a few prejudices. One of them is anti-Catholic in the extreme.

Just as obviously, all of us have prejudices, and we do not always take into account the views of other people.

But this is a case I find singularly ridiculous. Certainly the woman is highly unlikely to be the only person there who feels that way.

Just as certainly, there are a great number of people who choose otherwise. Just as she wants to raise her kids without seeing the crucifix on the wall, they want to raise their kids WITH seeing it.

And it is hardly a new thing in Italy. That is the center and heart of the Catholic religion.

What I have never quite understood is why the "I wants" of the minority are somehow given more precedence and importance than the "I wants" of the majority in a legal sense.

Just as those who believe religion in some form of religion have not just the right but I would argue the responsibility to train their children to discern right from wrong, so do those who disbelieve.

I, for example, strongly believe the Bible is right...and that the religious jewelry is borderline blasphemous.

If you truly want to "celebrate the cross", get out an un-sanded piece of wood, cover it in blood and wear that. A gold cross is to the cross of Jesus what Hitler is to responsible leadership.

At the same time, if I had kids, did not want to see a cross on the wall but my kids were being educated there, instead of disallowing the choice most people made that put it there, I would show my kids why I believed it was erroneous.

For that matter, the long-disproved "evolutionary ladder", not believed by even the vast majority of the leading evolutionists, which still hangs on many school walls is for me what the crucifix is for her.

I find it nonsensical, bad science, and something that I wish wasn't there.

So is my best approach to go to court to try and force the schools to remove it...or to sit down with my (non-existent) kid, show them what things like Darwin's Black Box or a host of other books have done to show that it is an error-filled document with no credibility?

Most people are not going to A) do the research and/or B) believe what I believe.

So why should I, in the minority, be allowed to force what I want on everyone else?

I am not a huge Berlusconi fan, but on this, at least, I must say...kudos to you. Well done, hold your ground.

See, the problem is...

I brought books. Lots of them. 7 in total.

Well, okay, 5. I read 2 of them the day I got them from the library.

These were not, for the most part, short books. 350+ pages, most of them.

Unfortunately, I am...well...a fast reader. I finished 1 of them before I landed in Nashville. I finished another the same night. And another the night after, then 2 more.

For those keeping track at home, it is now Wednesday, and I have about 200 pages left on the Peloponnesian War to read.

And that is after the Goose was sweet enough to check out a book for me from Belmont library. First book she has ever checked out, and this is her second go-round.

Fortunately, it was an excellent book on Albert Bender, better known as "Chief" Bender. It investigates the racism he was subjected to as a Native American pitching in the World Series from 1905 through 1914 and even up to his Hall of Fame induction.

329 pages of sometimes funny, sometimes touching, sometimes anger-inducing looks into the things he simply accepted because "that's how it was" and a comparison to his role in reducing racism towards Native Americans to that of Jackie Robinson.

Started reading it about 11 this morning and finished it, including some extensive note-taking for Dreamcatchers about 4 o clock. Not including breaks to ride with the Goose to the hospital so she could pick up charts for "her" patient.

So yeah, since last Thursday I have read almost 2400 hundred pages on subjects ranging from this one to ancient Greece to basketball to poker to the theory of movie making.

Obviously, I love to read.

Just as obviously...I need to figure out how to slow down. Just sayin'

Happy Birthday, Goose

Ah, she was just a spring chicken when I married her, a touchdown of years further into her youth than where I sat.

Now 2+ years have gone by. And today she celebrates her birthday.

What magic was in the air that day some (censored) years ago when a happy (read "screaming") baby girl...I would have said young baby girl, but that might have seemed redundant...entered into this vale of tears to make it just a shade less vale-y...and a shade less tear-y.

At, least, for me.

Because yes, even as we celebrate her birthday, I still consider meeting and courting her one of the highlights of my life, one of the true blessings that lets me know that life is wonderful.

So here is hoping it is a wonderful year for her as she furthers her education. Here is hoping I can be the support system I ought. That I can give her strength, encouragement, and happiness.

Happy birthday, Goose. Love you.