War 101

[saw]

If it's natural to kill
why do soldiers need training ?

Patriotism is okay unless it's only
my chickenshit congressman
dressed in a three piece flag
telling me to sign up my children

the salient features of the barbarism
we call Just War
is it convinces men to collectively
commit acts they would individually reject

See, the big problem here is the folks
doing all the fighting and dying
are not the same folks
doing all the talking and cajoling

A soldier hopes his sacrifice
will make his country better off
three months into it, he hopes at the very least
the other guy is worse off than he is

Six months into it
he knows without reservation
everything he needs to know about war
Everyone........... is worse off

[WIREMAN]

ooooooo baby baby it's a wild world.....

[mnaz]

and yet they claim it's inevitable, even genetic.

[constantine]

war. what is it good for? i would say absolutely nothing.

[WIREMAN]

do ya hear the sound
johnny marchin' home
hasty puddin' boyz
what's all this shit
about the feather in
the hat & just why did
they call it macaroni?????

[saw]

yea mark, what is dat shit ?....mnaz...so many claims...the recruiters now are highly trained manipulators that particularly love to prey on poor uneducated often rural areas where there are no jobs.....that's fucked up, man......like teasing kids with candy....and brother dino,
the quintessential ♦war song......right on !

[stilltrucking]

Kings and Queens
Presidents and Prime Ministers
Chairman of the Boards and Investors
Generals and Politicians
All agree
War is good business
Invest your children

THERE’S one moment in the Rolling Stone article that led to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s dismissal on Thursday that truly concerned me — and it’s not one of the reproachful comments about administration officials that have been clucked over by pundits and politicians. No, what stood out for me was the scene in which General McChrystal points to the members of his staff and says: “All these men, I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.”

General McChrystal got it entirely backward: generals definitely don’t die for their soldiers, and soldiers don’t die for generals. They die because generals order them into battle to accomplish a mission, and some are killed carrying out those orders. General McChrystal’s statement is that of a man who is sentimental about his job, and who has confused sentimentality with command.


For too long, the Army has been led by sentimental men, by peacocks in starched fatigues and strutting ascetics surrounded by public relations teams. But the Army doesn’t need sentimental generals; it needs generals who can give the kind of difficult and deadly orders that win wars.

The Unsentimental Warrior

[Lightning Rod]

hard subject to do freshly, steve
nice job

[hester_prynne]

I agree with LROD...
Really like this, it says it well.
H

[DT6011]

Is this an original composition? The idea of the poem is great. The message is straight to the point. Nice work.

[Doreen Peri]

Dear DT6011,

Are you a real person or a spam bot here to advertise Kingston Flash Drives? Just wondering. If you're not a spam bot and you are a real person, please let me know. I delete spam bots. *smile*
Thanks!

-DP - Admin

......

Steve, sorry for the interruption. Your poem was well written. I especially liked the last stanza.

[DT6011]

Nope, Im not a spam bot. I'm also not a cute little kitty.
I removed the link from my signature and instead put one in my homepage field. I hope that's more acceptable, after all it is my blog.

[Doreen Peri]

DT6011-

Oh OK good! Welcome to the Studio!

Actually we don't have any problem with real people promoting their businesses or websites or blogs or creative efforts, etc. Selling a product is something I don't normally see, though, unless it's a painting or a book or CD (since this is an arts site). Anyway, as long as you're a real person (*smile*), that's great! You're welcome here. It sure didn't look like a blog, btw. I clicked it and it looked like a site to sell flash drives.

.........

Again, apologies to Saw for interrupting your thread. It was totally not cool of me. I should have send DT6011 a private message.

.....

And now *drumroll* without further ado... back to the topic at hand... Saw's poem!

It's actually the last two stanzas that really brought this poem home with me:

A soldier hopes his sacrifice
will make his country better off
three months into it, he hopes at the very least
the other guy is worse off than he is

Six months into it
he knows without reservation
everything he needs to know about war
Everyone........... is worse off