Thank You, and Welcome Home
The yellow ribbons are tied around the trees. The flags are flying high. The hot dogs are on the grill. Lee Greenwood is singing “God Bless the USA” on the radio.
The kids are celebrating a day off from school.
Decent adults are honoring the heroes that make such days off possible.
To all the American soldiers and their loved ones, I wish you a peaceful Veterans Day.
I also have a simple message to every veteran on American soil.
Thank you. Thank you, and welcome home.
Welcome home.
http://www.soldiersangels.com/
http://www.vetsforfreedom.org/default.aspx
http://www.oursoldiersspeak.org/
We tell each other how much we support the troops.
Tell them.
In college I once said “Thank you and welcome home” to a Vietnam veteran. He began crying, saying that I was the first person in 20 years that said that to him.
My Rabbi often tells me that one small good deed can change the world, so I should make it a good one.
Send a care package. Videotape a statement. Send a written note. Help a homeless vet with a blanket or some food or help them find a shelter.
After what they did for us, it is the least we can do for them.
They don’t ask. They shouldn’t have to ask. We can still offer.
Give them that hearty handshake.
They lay it all on the line, and when they come back, deserve to hear it again and again.
So I will say it again.
Thank you and welcome home.
eric
November 11th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Veterans Day Pacific WWII Theater remembering my Dad.
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/11/veterans-day-pacific-wwii-memorial.html
November 11th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Andy Rooney did a great piece on Veteran’s Day the other day: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/06/60minutes/main5576909.shtml
One thing we most certainly shouldn’t do on days like today is to glorify war. There’s no glory in war. War is the worst thing man does. Sometimes we have no choice but to fight, as when the Nazis and Imperial Japanese attempted to impose vicious empire on huge swaths of the world. Sometimes we have plenty of choices, but we chose war anyway. There’s most definitely nothng glorious about that. It is true that most of our soldiers fight for their nation, for freedom and human rights, but it is mostly untrue of the actual wars they fight. In reality, no American has actually fought for our freedom since the Civil War, though they may have felt otherwise. In other words, soldiers usually fight for the right reasons, governments usually start fights for the wrong reasons.
On Veteran’s Day we should commend our soldiers and memorialize those who’ve passed, but we should also remember that the greatest tribute we can pay to those who fight for our freedom is to make sure they only fight when absolutely necessary. It’s been a long time since any war we’ve fought has been absolutely necessary.
JMJ
November 11th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
In Tuesdays’s LA Times, is an op-ed by one of the former
Chicago 10 who demonstrated against the Vietnam War, while
over 55,000 thousand ultimately died fighting the Communists.
Or as one former co-worker told me (he fought in Vietnam), the “liberals
and Communist sympathizers ended the war in defeat”.
Now, this Chicago Ten agitator is demanding we write Obama and our
legislators to bring the troops back from Aghanistan, immediately, that
we do not and will not support a corrupt govt.
Hmmmmmm, I wonder why this same indiviual isn’t fighting as hard
against Iran’s planned nuking of Tel Aviv and perhaps New York and
Washington D.C., and not encouraging our aiding the millions
there who are still protesting Ahmad and his mullah thug bosses?
Just today, Ahmad gave our Obama an ultimatum..either Israel or us ( Iran).
I guess he really doesn’t believe we will support the only democracy
in the M.E. over the worst dictatorship (Iran)?
Oh Carter, did you make a mistake by allowing the Shah’s removal and we
are paying for it since..maybe another 911?
Folks, if Obama really were worth his salt, rather than just showing
up for a portrait on Veterans Day, he would direct those 3 battleship
groups in the Persian Gulf to take out the Iranian regime..bomb the 30 nukes sites, free 75m Persians..and create a CHANGE in the M.E.
conflicts.
Guess what, no Iran, and the Afghan, Iraqi, Palestinian-Israelis
conflicts would be history.
The mad people at UCLA would lose any support they have…
There would really be a CHANGE we could live with.
Hows about it Obama..stop the smiling and talking, and use your
authority.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
“One thing we most certainly shouldn’t do on days like today is to glorify war.”
You also shouldnt diminish those who fight those wars by saying dumb crap like this.
” In reality, no American has actually fought for our freedom since the Civil War, though they may have felt otherwise.”
=======================
” to make sure they only fight when absolutely necessary. It’s been a long time since any war we’ve fought has been absolutely necessary.”
Those who are volunteering to risk their lives are the ones who get to determine if its absolutely neccessary or not.
NOT YOU !!!!
Screw Andy Rooney.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I wonder, Dan Lev, exactly how many millions of Vietnamese you think we should have murdered to free them from themselves.
Like I said, Micky, soldiers mostly fight for the right reasons. Governments mostly fight for the wrong reasons. There’s an expression among some of our soldiers in the Gulf: Operation Iraqi Liberty. Take a wild guess what that stands for (hint; take the first letter of each word and make a new word that expresses a main reason we went to war there).
There has been no existential threat to America since the Civil War, and even then it was ourselves we were fighting. Yes, soldiers fight for our freedom, but no, our governments usual do not.
And no, our volunteers do NOT “determine if it’s absolutely necessary or not.” They simply carry out there orders. Remember, in America, as opposed to, say, Guinea (a militaristic conservative’s utopia?), we have a civilian controlled military, which, in a republic, means our government tells the military what to do, not the other way around. Andy Rooney, a man who actually served at war, did his duty, like all our volunteers today. And like all our volunteers today, he did NOT decide his duty. He simply carried it out. Even if for that alone, especially given the horrific tragedy that occured last week, we should honor our service men and women. They carry out their orders, even when they seem stupid or evil. For it is not for them to decide, but for you and I and all the rest of the American people. God forbid I’m wrong and you’re right or vice versa and they decide one way or the other and they’re wrong! Best we keep things the way they are. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than what they have in Guinea!
JMJ
November 11th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Oops! I should have said, ” even when those orders seem stupid or evil.”
JMJ
November 11th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
“And no, our volunteers do NOT “determine if it’s absolutely necessary or not.” They simply carry out there orders.”
Bull.
They have the decision wether or not to even make themselves available to those orders from the get go before they even volunteer.
Its real simple.
If they think its not necessary that they dont go where they know they’ll have to take orders that conflict with their beliefs or threaten their lives.
Stop assuming everyone is so stupid, especially our troops, that they cant make the decision for themselves whether or not what they’re risking their lives for is necessary or not.
Would you volunteer to risk your life if you thought it wasnt necessary ?
Really, that was dumb and incredibly arrogant to say that because you feel a war isnt necessary anyone who fights it is some kind of victim of an administrations decisions.
Try to put your BDS to the side once in a while.
its really beginning to effect whatever rational thought you had left
Wise up.
‘Andy Rooney, a man who actually served at war, did his duty, like all our volunteers today. And like all our volunteers today, he did NOT decide his duty. He simply carried it out. ”
Andy Rooney was drafted, he did not volunteer.
” And like all our volunteers today, he did NOT decide his duty.”
Theres a huge difference between duty and necessity.
Although when you’re drafted you dont get to decide if your duty is ncessary.
You could be a derelict and just not fight if t you think risking your life isnt necessary but then you’d get popped for dereliction of duty and treason.
Those who volunteer have decided up front long before any orders are given that the war is necessary otherwise they wouldnt be risking their life and are more likely to fight with conviction.
“There has been no existential threat to America since the Civil War”
Totally asinine.
Of course theres been and is existential threats to our country.
Main Entry: ex·is·ten·tial
Pronunciation: \ˌeg-(ˌ)zis-ˈten(t)-shəl, ˌek-(ˌ)sis-\
Function: adjective
Date: 1693
1 : of, relating to, or affirming existence
2 a : grounded in existence or the experience of existence : empirical b : having being in time and space
Al Queda, exits in this time and space as well as radical Islam.
The japanese and the Soviets did in fact exist as a threat.
How incredibly ignorant can one person be ?
November 12th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Once again, I wrote a reply, only to have it redacted.
JMJ
November 12th, 2009 at 11:07 am
The Japanese and Soviets were never existential threats to America. MAD negated the Societ threat, and Japan never had the resources to conquer us. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of modern history knows these things. As for Al Qaeda, to think they are an existential threat to America is laughable at best - insanely paranoid at worst. The last existential threat to America came, actually, from people like you. It was Americans! It was the Confederacy under the phoney banner of “States Rights!” It was “conservatives!” History informs us that the greatest existential threat to any nation is usually found within. As with the Islamic world today, the Religious Right is often at the core of that threat. This happened in Britain (which is why the Puritans hot boooted out and sent here) with their civil war, it was in evidence in our civil war, it was at the core of the dissolution of the Roman Empire, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and on and on. The Religious Right is a very dangerous and real threat. I’m more worried about them than anyone else.
JMJ
November 12th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
” Japanese and Soviets were never existential threats to America. ”
Oh just stop the crap already ! Would you ?
Pearl Harbor being blown up actually “EXISTED” you fool !
That was a threat that did exist and followed the.
The existential threat of the Soviets was plain as day among the ICMS planted in Cuba !
And you can go ahead and play your little semantic games in that ust because there was no threat to “CONQUER” us does not mean that they were not a threat in many other ways.
They most certainly wre an existential threat to hundreds of thousands of American lives whether or not they conquered anyone.
Read the descrition of the word and pull your head outta your rump while you’re at it.
Its amazing just how sick ones political bigotry can make them to the point they think they can apply any meaning to any word they want.
Good God this kind of idiotic liberal dismantling of the english language just drives me outta my fricken mind.
“History informs us’
Speak for yourself.