letter i wrote to editor, two recent local boys KIA in iraq

[jimboloco]

Subject: city & state 6/15 "solemn tribute" &.....
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/15/North ... __sw.shtml

I saw the two articles this morning, "Solemn Tribute" and "Recalling a son, soldier, friend." Their families both had strong military histories and these two young men were brought up in that way. But consider the sacrosanct, is it treason, unpatriotic, or heresy, to state that these articles in the City & State section of the Times both eulogized well, but they also patronised? Or furthermore, if the Times prints an alternative view, is the Times a "Liberal" newspaper?

Well, I have another point of view. This is not being disrespectful, knowing well the burden of dissent, even as a Vietnam vet, hearing words of scorn and rejection from my own relatives because of my anti-war stance. I would never speak with disrespect of these greiving, yet proud, families.

I will ask this newspaper if, as one surviving family member said, "we'll meet again someday" (in the hereafter), and yet another, "He talks proudly about his son...who could imagine nothing greater than giving his life defending his country," these comments don't deserve a special attention? Well, if the Iraqis invaded America, I guess we'd be in a lot of trouble. And these young men are gone now, for this lifetime.

What is the real cost of war? Besides the dead and wounded and suffering and co-opted social programs or more free money to create new wealth? Instead we, the warriers and poor and average taxpayers contine to channel it into the wealthy elites, the stockholders and upper echelon officers of the military-industrial contractors, with our taxes and our lives. We just have our own slices of the pie, so we develope these traditions, the wealthy kids, like George Jr.'s two daughters, or Jeb's kids, all of them educated, young, healthy, yet they will not go,oh no, they have other priorities, and the military class, as well in per·pe·tu·i·ty serving generation after generation without really knowing why, just these flowing words of patriotism and service.

As Wilfred Owens, the World War One British poet wrote, in his "Dulce et decorum est", (before returning to the front, where he was killed in action,)

"If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs

Bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori."

Is it always sweet and honorable to die for one's country?


http://www.smithtown.k12.ny.us/frshcamp ... poemsA.htm

Jim Willingham
640 60th St. S.
St. Pete, Fl 33707
(727) 341-1957
opusmaximus2050@yahoo.com


© Copyright 2005 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
Standard of Accuracy

[hester_prynne]

Excellent, excellent letter.
More letters like this, volumes of letters like this, can interrupt this ingrained, perpetuity of the naive notion that fighting in wars is the ultimate heroic act.
Suicide bombers think it's heroic too you know.........
Glad you wrote this Jimbo.....
H

[jimboloco]

Thanks and as usual I get the energy drain afterwards, letting it go this time. At Hell's Gate new book out by Zen monk Claud Anshin Thomas, reading it now. Peace, thanks....

[Zlatko Waterman]

Beautifully done, my friend. God bless you for your effort.

For your effort, for my sake.



--Z

[whimsicaldeb]

Could you let us know if they print your letter? I'd be curious to know if they will ... because it's so powerful, they may not. In the mean time, I'll watch: http://www.sptimes.com/Opinion.shtml

Grief is a funny thing; and anger & grief mixed together make weird visions (of sugar-plums danced in their heads)

Saying things like this enough ...

Quotes from the article...

"There is no greater love than this," said U.S. Army Chaplain Timothy Genung, "that a man lay down his life for his friends."

"America can sleep in peace tonight because of heroes like Louis Niedermeier," Young said.

and maybe they can continue to believe, continue to make sense of the senselessness in their pain, grief and loss. That losing their child; offered in serve to this war; was how they fed and worshipped their religion of choice.

The Dalai Lama understands this ...

http://www.amberlotus.com/a-simple-monk-05-cal.html
June 05

The Dalai Lama offers his prayers in consercarting a new large Buddha statue in the Clementown Settlement. According to Tibetan custom, it is these prayers and rituals which breath life into the Buddha satues, and until then they are worthless metal objects. Once they are filled with written prayers, insense, sang and rice, blessed and sprinkled with water, they become religious objects, ready to be worshipped and prayed to. -- Alison Wright

That's what many in America have made of war, and the objects of war; including soldiers (theirs and others kids) - religious objects, all.

But hope remains ... for not everyon is worshipping at the alter of war. Young and old alike, in group, in droves, are not buying into the selling or continued worshipping of this age old religion ...

Army lowers standards and increases bonuses, but still may fall short of recruiting goal
By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY / Knight Ridder Newspapers
The U.S. Army probably will come up well short of the 80,000 new recruits it needs during fiscal 2005, despite adding a thousand more recruiters, boosting enlistment bonuses, spending on upbeat television ads and beginning to lower its standards.
Monday, June 13, 2005

Parents shield teens from recruiters
By Shirley Dang / CONTRA COSTA TIMES
As bombs continue to explode in the Middle East, and U.S. armed forces search for fresh recruits, one source of young servicemen and women has become increasingly difficult to tap. ... sexual harassment and death," Walden said. An Army spokesman rejected the assertion ...
Monday, June 13, 2005 (ContraCostaTimes.com)

Military recruiters redouble their efforts to fill boot camps as the war drags on: Missing a goal? Tell it to the Marines
By Dogen HannahSPOTLIGHT ON RECRUITMENT: / CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Decked out in a dress uniform, standing more than 6 feet tall and bearing the confidence of 16 years as a Marine, Staff Sgt. Aslan Altan knows he can be an intimidating figure. ... services of young men and women. The active-duty Army missed its recruiting goal for the ...
Sunday, June 12, 2005 (ContraCostaTimes.com)

My heart goes out to these parents, the people, from the article ... for the connected part of themselves that KNOWS exactly what they've done: what was sacrificed on the alter of this religion of war: and if you should happen in passing to even briefly touch that spot; that's when you feel the depth of their pain - and can understand and empathize why they are still using this old tired rhetoric to so desperately hid from what feels almost overwhelming.

So, we read, or write, or quietly ache for/with them - until they can do so for themselves. While their courage grows - for the day they will let go of this insanity. For ... such is the way of love and healing.

[ren&stimpy]

The Owens poem is nice as is your letter, jimbo, but we might keep in mind that the US military is comprised of people, mostly men, who voluntarily enlist. When some gung-ho highschool boy enlists in the Marines and asks to be sent to where the action is, and ends up getting sent back in a bag, our outpourings of pity are going to be limited.

The death of civilians is certainly tragic and injust, but the deaths of soldiers--US, Russian, chinese, muslims, whoever--who are dedicated to war, to battle, to killing--I am not so sure it's that horrible. It is when they are forcibly conscripted. War is most injust when sides are incredibly unmatched (like the nazi blitzkrieg into Poland in '39): so in that sense the US is like some bully harassing a smaller younger foe (but that doesn;t mean that the US might not need to be in the middle east).

Match up the sides and put 'em out in the desert and let 'em kill themselves: if the soldiers and officer consent. (tho I don't think the games should include nukes of course). Personally I think some of the cowboy F-22s vs. the new Su MIGs firefights would be way cool to gamble on. .....

"Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori."

[jimboloco]

Whimzy one, I've been getting my letters printed in the St Pete Times for ever since Desert Storm One, they are all archived, altho my submissions have been about double what they printed, at first not so successful.....they like a specific reference to something printed before, a letter, an article,an editorial, and try to lump together different responses to the same subject. The fellow in charge of the letters page attends St O'Pete Quaker meeting and he tries for a forum-like, but don't always get in in there, especially the more controversial partz, which is why I also sent the letter directly to the journalist, the letters editor, and a number of local-national antiwar contacts.
I will read your letter more completely later, but am off to the jewel mines right now, I think I am in charge today! This is agreat response with referenced info and will follow
roger wilco, I'd say to the Dalai Lama! Roger Wilco I say to you as well. I will read your response I promise. Like I wanna but hey gotta go!Will post you an alert when it comes thru.

Rent, it is good to hear from you too! It almost seem like you are throwing up your hands in frustration and saying, let the whole lot kill each other off! Altho knowing you a bit, I'd say there is some intended sarcasm there. You are right on the money tho when it comes to war toys, no doubt, engineers, technobuffs, of all kinds like their toys. Yet there are flaws, as you know, civilian casualties and yes, the Strykker troop vehicle is a dud, unfortunately, the armor plating is not sufficient so they have add-ons that attach outside and they make the vehicle less maneuverable, slower, less stable, I can get it for you possible later.

I knew a guy, bright, Dave, I went thru 4 years of AFROTC with him at U Mich, he became the commandant of cadets, we went to the same pilot training class, he graduated first(I was #13), he wanted to be an astronaut. With his degree in aeronautical engineering, he was on his way, except that he pancaked in to the dust in Nevada on a strafing run with the F-4 Phantom, and ya know he had no idea about Vietnam's history other than what he was brainwashed with, good young man, Christian, socialised warrior. He would have goner on to fly out of Thailand or DaNang, strafing passes on the dykes and etc etc in the Red River Valley, then he'd have been a mamber of the Red River Rats, yes, the club.

So when we volunteered for ROTC, etc, we had no idea, none.
You are right outpourings of pity are within the parameters of bullshit propagandized religion and political crapola. I am not a pacifist, tho I ought to be, but am all about teaching the cost of war the aim of vets for Peace, mon. Right on letter, i see a mix of sarcasm and wanting cautiously to believe in some kind of Realpolitic, yet, in my opinion, we are not even close to a peacekeeping agenda in this time and age, more neo-colonialism at work. Got to run!