Thanks to Prairie Sunshine who allowed us to share this story with you.

You’re welcome, eg.

Let us all Never Forget.

And what does it say about the abominable treatment this administration has shown our fallen, that for NBC Nightly News [11/10] to find a national tribute to fallen soldiers, they had to go to the nation of Canada–for Highway of Heroes.

One hopes when Obama-Biden take office, one of their first acts will be to give our returning soldiers the honor and welcome they deserve, not the cover of darkness the Bush Administration has carried out. Surely they will not send our military again so recklessly and cravenly as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Prairie asked me to update this to show the soldier was from Minnesota. The plane landed in Fargo and the procession then drove east into MN.

Real nice post. Thanks EG and Prairie.
(I think I’ve cried enough today, so I’ll just sneak off and find a comfy book.)
See y’all later.

Middle America tends to be belittled by the news media. This story shows who some of the real patriots are.

Yermom

Thanks, yermom, much appreciated.

Seeing Tammy Duckworth and Barack Obama honoring veterans in Illinois today was a moving moment for me. And I hope a signal is being sent of Obama’s commitment to veterans…and maybe an appointment for Duckworth?

Digg

Hey thanks Neuro.

OMG, EG and PS…woops, Prairie Sunshine, (initials)

I grew up in Minnesota, and I remember my folks having the white knuckle driving times. Grandpa and Grandma in Minot.

All the best for our military folks, for sure. My daughter went to Whole Foods and stocked up for her boyfriend in Afghanistan.

Or a seat in the Senate. Wouldn’t that be great? Lost a run for the House and gets a Senate seat?

I’m glad to see that our young veterans are treated like heroes and not like bums .
It’s too bad our Vietnam vets weren’t as well!

Dugg!!

True. And true confessions. I was so against the Viet Nam war, I disrespected the soldiers. I was too young to make the distinction, I guess. Or else I thought that because I wouldn’t report if drafted, I disrespected folks who did report.

When was the last time any U.S. war was to the benefit of the US? Thus why should we honor veterans? What have they done for us?

Because we asked these young men and women to put their lives on the line for our country, and they did. Some of them came home in coffins. I honor their sacrifice, while spending much of my adult life working for peace between nations that hate each other.

Pretty easy to armchair quarterback, harder to be out there.

I assume you are joking?

I think people are able to separate the war, from the soldiers.
People may not care for the war ,but at least they appreciate the sacrifices these young men and women make!

No.

I may be anti-war but I’m not anti-veteran I am one!!!

There are surviving WW II veterans, and as we learned today, a WW I veteran still with us.

Why should we honor sacrifices that are made for no reason whatsoever?

Thank you egregious.

Dugg Neuro… Thanks for the link.
Thanks Egregious for sharing this with us on the day we all should remember those who served our country and us. especially those who gave everything so we could enjoy freedom.

I was explaining to my Sweetie why the coaches on the Sharks are wearing red Poppies on their lapels and while searching for the history behind it I found this poem and I feel this is the post to share it with everyone as it is Veterans day and we should salute all our veterans

:FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze
A young soldier saluted it, and then
He stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He’d stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers’ tears?
How many Pilots’ planes shot down?
How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves?
No Freedom is not free
I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant “Amen”
When a flag had draped a coffin of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No Freedom isn’t free!

Copyright 1981
Kelly Strong

I hope that Obama lives up to his promise to address our Veterans and reverse all that the Republicans have done to strip them of their benefits in the name of fiscal responsibility ! They always spoke the right words but never took the right actions to truly support the TROOPS…
Personally I will never forgive them for how they treated our Veterans!

~~~ModNote: Edited for content. Email address removed.~~~

There are those who think that WWII had nothing to do with US. But that is controversial, so I don’t need to address that. But when has the US military ever defended a US citizen?

ohhhhh i remember this night. i do.

nite all.

teddy thread up

Did we fight world war II for no reason?

What did WWI ever had to do with the US? That was surely the most ridiculus war ever for not only the US but also for Europe?

in hawaii?

nite.

nite!!

Um, possibly. Think about all that followed, and guess.

Um. US overthrew Hawaii in 1899 or thereabouts.

Those can’t be your real feeling about our Veterans can they be?? These young men did their duty as was required. I many of the conflicts they never had a choice, except maybe to run to Canada or something.
To not honor those who gave to you your freedom and they gave to protect is to me something I will never understand! Maybe if you HAD to serve you might understand why we should honor them, not must but should! But you are entitled to your opinions but it sure make me think differently about those who refuse to honor those who gave so much for all of us.

You are an intelligent person. I say shame on you. Whether or not one agrees with any given war or action, there are many different reasons that a young person joins the military. In some wars they have been drafted against their will, and gave their lives. I think that deserves our respect. Often young people join the military because they have no other options or for the chance for an education. They don’t choose the war itself. A standing military of some sort does protect us in ways that are unquantifiable, but I believe still valid. That being said, I certainly prefer no wars, but human beings are violent.

no, i wasn’t being a smart-alec, i meant pearl harbor, when it was attacked.that was the only one i could think of.

nite, will check in the morning.

sweet soup dreams, ecahn.

Do you want to tell a mother who’s son died in battle that his death was ridiculous?

Why should we honor sacrifices that are made for no reason whatsoever?

Because an after-the-fact subjective appraisal of the political reasons for, or efficacy of, an armed conflict pales when compared to the simple pure beliefs of the individual soldier who bravely died while believing that the ultimate sacrifice made was for the service and protection of his/her country? For the protection of me? And you?

So you think that they were wrong in that appraisal – so what? Who fucking cares?

That another human being would walk, in sheer terror, into a situation knowing that it might be his or her last day on earth, with only the purest and most noble of intentions, is most certainly reason to celebrate the life and ultimate generosity of that person.

I much prefer not to spend my life saying “heil”

my 34 to ecahn’s 37

Well, at least she got the thread all revved up.

Do not bite, pups. Please.

Well said.

My father in-law is a WWII Vet and went through the Pacific campaign. All my uncles served in WWII and saw many things that they never spoke about unless really prodded into it. They all served for all of us so we would have the freedom our founding fathers envisioned for the people of this country. As the poem I posted so eloquently says FREEDOM IS NOT FREE it is always paid for with blood!. Some one always gives their live! so we can have the freedom so many take for granted. As it seems some on this thread do!

My grandfather was stationed at Pearl Harbor the day it was attacked.He was doing duty on a tug boat the morning of the attack. The Japanese caused a great amount of devastation that morning in what was an unprovoked attack.
To me that sounds like a good reason to go to war

In my book it is possible to honor the sacrifice of a young life, to acknowledge they gave up everything in order to protect the people they love, whether that is by being a policeman, guard, or member of the armed forces. We wouldn’t last very long without the people who guard us.

I have lost a family member to war, in WWII. Whether or not the US government acted wisely — and I think they made the only possible decision — the older generation still misses him. He should be at the family reunions making jokes and joining in the games. Instead he volunteered to protect us from the enemy and his plane was shot down.

Ecahn, I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

my brother died serving in the army. in germany. and the army never really said a whole lot except ship his stuff home….not even wrapped really.
total waste. my mom wouldn’t even talk about him for years.still is selective about it. he was like my twin, my sister and mom and i were numb for years, couldn’t take it in….i was 19 he was 21. tall handsome devil with auburn hair, blue eyes and freckles.

he had an african-american color guard or whatever it’s called. really nice guy. only black man there, but everyone invited him to the wake. i didn’t go up to the casket and my aunt realized it and said i would regret it…so, i did…they had closed the curtain around, so, it was me and the guard. i said my thing. he was crying. gave my family and me a hug when he left later. class act.
(we lived in a mixed neighborhood when we were younger, so, he was welcome in our circle)

i kinda know what you mean i think ecahn..
like when you harm someone to get illgotten money and give it to charity, is it really doing good? does that make it clean? honorable?

that kinda thing?

can’t believe i just wrote/spilled all of that. oh well, hope it has a good use, cuz his death sure didn’t.

hit the wall. signing off. why do all of the meaty or fun threads happen when i hafta go to bed?? wahhhhhh, whine, you must/need to go to bed.

I know you are an intelligent person and I respect your opinions,I’ve learned alot reading your comments so there’s no hard feelings!

Let’s just agree to disagree and leave it at that.

I think we have to honor the “intent” of the individual soldier, not those who start wars for their own hidden agendas.

Well put!!

Thank you egregious, good diary. And thanks to Prairie Sunshine for sharing the story.

I’m thankful for all veterans, today and always; and I’m proud to be descended from a line of veterans dating from my great-great grandfather, a British emigre who fought in the Civil War and the Spanish American war, all the way down to my Air Force veteran Dad.

We cannot forget the contributions and the sacrifices, ever.

after spilling my guts onto the road on this one in more ways than one, i’m gonna claim a free pass on blogwhoring twice in one day rule…

i’m gonna ask that people read this poem, i put it up on oxdown today for the vets, and for my brother, although i didn’t say that in the post. that was why.
if possible, click on the link and listen to the poet read the poem. it goes to the core of it. it heals.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/1665

(and i posted this comment by mistake in that thread, mods, if possible, edit?)

Thank you dmac for the beautiful poem. May you have peace and love in remembrance of your brother.

These soldiers did NOT die for us. They died because our govt was taken over by wicked self serving people with no sense of honor. The only sense in which they died “for us” is the sense that if THEY hadn’t died, our govt would have chosen some other unfortunate souls — and those other unfortunate sould might be us. None of “us” have the slightest grievance against the good people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our illegal misbegotten govt is the agency causing our soldiers to die. So you can hardly say that they died “for us.” They just died. They were killed by unprovoked aggression. Nothing noble whatsoever. No noble cause.

But then again, our govt is supposed to be us. And it is us, we, who have neglected our civic duties and allowed our govt to be so coopted into wickedness and destruction. So maybe one correct reading can be drawn from the statement that they “died for us.” They died because we fell asleep at the switch and let the dogs into our govt.

Moving……Thank You!

eCAHN~ Germany declared war on the US the very day of Pearl Harbor. They had already (one week before) sent out a fleet of U-Boats with orders to enter major American ports and torpedo shipping. They had started doing that on the high seas long before, which is why the Merchant Marines were trained in anti-submarine warfare and ships were sent out in convoys with escorts.

Soldiers are trained to follow legal orders, not to make policy. Soldiers die because we (or our elected representatives in a democracy) send them to war. If the war is wrong it is not THEIR fault, but our own. In a dictatorship soldiers are sent to fight by a single leader. We can blame Bush, Nixon, Kennedy, LBJ for their wars…but we, in a Democracy, share in that responsibility…perhaps even more so than Japanese or German citizens did.

BTW – One can honor and memorialize (i.e. remember their deaths) not as a way to perpetuate war or solemnify militarism. Memorial Day was actually an event to remember the vast waste of human life that occurred during WWI in the Trench Warfare over thin strips of land. Efforts were made, unsucessfully, to prevent a war of that magnitude from ever occurring again. That’s why it was called “The War To End All War”. The Geneva Conventions and the League of Nations sprung from that war.

That some people, like Elizabeth Hasselbeck, seem to think the day is a CELEBRATION of the Armed Forces is a sign that people are unaware of the history of the day.

Well, I wouldn’t quite put it that way, but I do believe the lyrics to this song make a very valid point.

Universal Soldier

Well, He’s five foot-two, and he’s six feet-four,
He fights with his missiles and with spears.
He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He’a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill’s for you for my friend and me for you.

And he’s fighting for Canada,
He’s fighting for France,
He’s fighting for the USA,
And he’s fighting for the Russians,
And he’s fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.

And he’s fighting for Democracy,
He’s fighting for the Reds,
He says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one who must decide,
Who’s to live and who’s to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone!
He’s the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can’t go on.

He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more;
They come from here and there and you and me,
And Brothers can’t you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.

(see also: War is a Racket,
by two time Medal of Honor recipient, U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler.

Two things to consider:
1) Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and take back the sole power to declare war, except in the most dire of circumstances (a nuclear attack being the only one that comes to mind).
2) (I know this is going to be real popular. ; )) Bring back the draft.

The Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war so that we would not enter wars except after full democratic deliberation. However, no formal declaration of war has been issued since World War II, and the check has become dangerously eroded.

Conscription into a citizen army at one time played a checking function as well; people who do not want to sacrifice their own lives or the lives of their loved ones in wars they consider unjust or unnecessary, will exert enormous political pressure to prevent or stop such wars. But, after something like that in fact happened during the Vietnam War, the draft was abolished in 1973. The people who volunteer for the armed forces today are, on average, more willing to support whatever military goals the President sets than the conscripts of earlier generations were, and the same certainly applies to those who believe themselves are in no way at risk of having to serve (can you say chickenhawk?).

Weep for the dead of all wars. Such a bloody waste of humanity. All wars of the past 100 years have started with a lie. Weep for the millions of dead civilians, too. WW2 was a lie. The US and Great Britain cut off Japan’s oil and raw materials. Plans for attacking Japan were drawn up in advance. The Japanese code was broken and the US knew when and where the Japanese would attack. The men at the top let all those people die at Pearl Harbor in order to get the US citizens to agree to war. It worked then and it worked on 911. That is why PNAC said that they needed a new Pearl Harbor.

The US fired the first shot at Pearl Harbor. Why? Because they knew that there was five small submarines that were brought there aboard a large submarine.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. First, one must learn the true history. The same families are still traitors to US citizens. The Bush’s money came from George’s grandfather, Prescott, who was charged under the Trading With The Enemy Act.

Brigadier General Miles Sherman’s report on the suffering of Japan. Read no. 9 where he says that effective economic sanctions would not precipitate a declaration of war on us by Japan. It was all about keeping resources for the US and Britain. This report was on July 25, 1941.
http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/tim…..5amie.html

The Communications of Military Significance from Dec/40 to Dec/41. The actual spy communications and US reports are found here. Proof that Japan tried to avoid war with the US is on these pages. Proof with the intercepted spy wires that the US knew of the impending attack on Pearl Harbor…and let it happen.
http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/tim…..aster.html

Honor the fallen. They fought and died thinking freedom was at risk.

So many thoughtful and provocative perspectives in this thread. Thank you, eg, for remembering and bringing forward this comment I made way back in a Christy thread. That moment haunts me still because my own emotions are so strong on what that young soldier was called to do…and why.

May the warmongers know their just reward.

Because the men and women who serve don’t get to choose their conflicts. With very rare exceptions, they follow orders, trusting in their civilian overseers to commit them to just causes.

If the proprietors will forgive me a little blogwhoring, I elaborate here on this issue.