"War is hell, but if you need me, I am there."
So I'm reading this book called "The Last Full Measure." It's about the final battles of the American Civil War. Written in novel form, very good.
Grant just got done reading the newspapers' admonitions of General Sherman's scorched-earth march to Savannah. They call him a barbarian and all kinds of nasty things. Grant ... well, he takes an interesting view.
He starts thinking that in a fight like this one, it is impossible for civilians not to feel the reprocussions - that the whole idea of this "gentleman's disagreement" over whether or not the southern states had a right to leave the Union is ridiculous. He goes on to think that if civilians never feel the pinch - never suffer the sting of war - then they will keep asking their army to fight forever.
Now I'm not advocating killing the firstborn sons of my enemies, but Sherman was destroying the breadbasket of the enemy - he was executing Grant's larger strategy of starving this determined and elusive enemy while Grant kept Lee bottled up elsewhere. This meant burning farms and destroying everything he could in his wake.
I have never liked that the US Army has forts named for people like Hood, Bragg, and other heroes of the Confederacy. I once saw a Confederate flag hanging in a Soldier's room on Fort Sill. I thought, Does he remember the Army he is in, right now? Does he realize that those traitors are not a part of what we can be proud of? They were fantastic fighters, worth studying and learning from, but not revering. General Lee may have been a devout man who did what he felt was right, but the fact is he was wrong. He may have been magnificent in those first years of victory, but I am infinitely glad that General Grant crushed him.
And Grant did that by stamping the life out of Lee's army. He forced them to remain engaged with his own forces in Petersburgh while other generals ran amok in the South, cutting off the supply lines and essentially strangling them. Not only cutting off the supply lines, but removing the South's ability to supply its army with food at all.
Barbaric? Welcome to war.
Did those civilians deserve to have their farms burned? When does someone become part of the fight? We bomb or destroy war-supporting factories and industries, for example. You cripple the enemy however you can.
So what about Grant's view? We used to say, "We are a nation at war, not an army at war," but I don't think that's true. The vast majority of Americans go along their daily lives without feeling any of the conditions of the war. They don't have sugar rations like my Grandma did in World War II, Rosie the Riveter isn't taking over the war-machine industry, and even the protests are meek and mild compared to what happened during the Vietnam conflict. It's a far away, insulated thing to America. Names like Petreus and McChrystal and Shwartzkof will forever be overshadowed by names like Patton, MacArthur, and Eisenhower - and even names like Megan Fox, Michael Jackson, and Kid Rock.
A friend of mine once said, "If it weren't for Facebook, the nation would probably forget we are in a war."
I haven't even been in the USA for more than two months at a time in the last two years, but I suspect that is true. The citizens of America are nose deep in their X Boxes and "recession."
Pff. Recession. Come crying to me when ranchers are letting their cattle graze in garbage dumps; that's what I saw here. Start whining when your lunch is a green apple and a bottle of coke, every day, for A YEAR - not because you like it, but because that's what you can afford; that's what my grandfather did in the depression. You can complain when your sons and daughters are being drafted - not when they are called to a duty they voluntarily signed up for.
And for that matter, a lot of soldiers need to quit their crying, too.
Americans have no idea the ring of safety we've built for them. Our national memory seems to have completely forgotten the hardship and sacrifice that REAL war brings to the home front.
Maybe if the general American populace were more invested in this conflict, we'd have won it. Maybe with their support - real, substantial support - we would have overcome. Maybe with their pressure on our government to do it right - real, substantial pressure - we'd have been given better leadership.
I will always be thankful to the remarkable individuals with organizations like the Red Cross, USO, and the Veteran's Administration. I will also be thankful to my mother's office, who sent gifts and treats aplenty, which my troops and I enjoyed very much, and to Mayamaia for all the time and effort she has spent keeping my spirit alive and well - as well as anyone else who has spent the time to send something, say something, or ... god, do ANYTHING to help out. I've even got a good measure of respect for the people who get out their and voice their disagreement - and I mean REALLY make some noise, not the silly, safe little "protests" on the manicured lawns of college campuses - because at least they are acknowledging what's happening and trying to affect it. These are the exceptions.
To the rest of you:
A lot of people quote General Sherman without even knowing it. He said, "War is Hell," yes, but he followed it up with, "but if you need me, I am there."
Are you? If not, quit crying, stop blinding yourself, and join the fight in your way.
Grant just got done reading the newspapers' admonitions of General Sherman's scorched-earth march to Savannah. They call him a barbarian and all kinds of nasty things. Grant ... well, he takes an interesting view.
He starts thinking that in a fight like this one, it is impossible for civilians not to feel the reprocussions - that the whole idea of this "gentleman's disagreement" over whether or not the southern states had a right to leave the Union is ridiculous. He goes on to think that if civilians never feel the pinch - never suffer the sting of war - then they will keep asking their army to fight forever.
Now I'm not advocating killing the firstborn sons of my enemies, but Sherman was destroying the breadbasket of the enemy - he was executing Grant's larger strategy of starving this determined and elusive enemy while Grant kept Lee bottled up elsewhere. This meant burning farms and destroying everything he could in his wake.
I have never liked that the US Army has forts named for people like Hood, Bragg, and other heroes of the Confederacy. I once saw a Confederate flag hanging in a Soldier's room on Fort Sill. I thought, Does he remember the Army he is in, right now? Does he realize that those traitors are not a part of what we can be proud of? They were fantastic fighters, worth studying and learning from, but not revering. General Lee may have been a devout man who did what he felt was right, but the fact is he was wrong. He may have been magnificent in those first years of victory, but I am infinitely glad that General Grant crushed him.
And Grant did that by stamping the life out of Lee's army. He forced them to remain engaged with his own forces in Petersburgh while other generals ran amok in the South, cutting off the supply lines and essentially strangling them. Not only cutting off the supply lines, but removing the South's ability to supply its army with food at all.
Barbaric? Welcome to war.
Did those civilians deserve to have their farms burned? When does someone become part of the fight? We bomb or destroy war-supporting factories and industries, for example. You cripple the enemy however you can.
So what about Grant's view? We used to say, "We are a nation at war, not an army at war," but I don't think that's true. The vast majority of Americans go along their daily lives without feeling any of the conditions of the war. They don't have sugar rations like my Grandma did in World War II, Rosie the Riveter isn't taking over the war-machine industry, and even the protests are meek and mild compared to what happened during the Vietnam conflict. It's a far away, insulated thing to America. Names like Petreus and McChrystal and Shwartzkof will forever be overshadowed by names like Patton, MacArthur, and Eisenhower - and even names like Megan Fox, Michael Jackson, and Kid Rock.
A friend of mine once said, "If it weren't for Facebook, the nation would probably forget we are in a war."
I haven't even been in the USA for more than two months at a time in the last two years, but I suspect that is true. The citizens of America are nose deep in their X Boxes and "recession."
Pff. Recession. Come crying to me when ranchers are letting their cattle graze in garbage dumps; that's what I saw here. Start whining when your lunch is a green apple and a bottle of coke, every day, for A YEAR - not because you like it, but because that's what you can afford; that's what my grandfather did in the depression. You can complain when your sons and daughters are being drafted - not when they are called to a duty they voluntarily signed up for.
And for that matter, a lot of soldiers need to quit their crying, too.
Americans have no idea the ring of safety we've built for them. Our national memory seems to have completely forgotten the hardship and sacrifice that REAL war brings to the home front.
Maybe if the general American populace were more invested in this conflict, we'd have won it. Maybe with their support - real, substantial support - we would have overcome. Maybe with their pressure on our government to do it right - real, substantial pressure - we'd have been given better leadership.
I will always be thankful to the remarkable individuals with organizations like the Red Cross, USO, and the Veteran's Administration. I will also be thankful to my mother's office, who sent gifts and treats aplenty, which my troops and I enjoyed very much, and to Mayamaia for all the time and effort she has spent keeping my spirit alive and well - as well as anyone else who has spent the time to send something, say something, or ... god, do ANYTHING to help out. I've even got a good measure of respect for the people who get out their and voice their disagreement - and I mean REALLY make some noise, not the silly, safe little "protests" on the manicured lawns of college campuses - because at least they are acknowledging what's happening and trying to affect it. These are the exceptions.
To the rest of you:
A lot of people quote General Sherman without even knowing it. He said, "War is Hell," yes, but he followed it up with, "but if you need me, I am there."
Are you? If not, quit crying, stop blinding yourself, and join the fight in your way.