tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post2322678725550134009..comments2023-11-17T03:55:40.736-05:00Comments on Ink Spots: Heroism, sacrifice, and the Medal of HonorLilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18373158801523577733noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-73766042009680038622010-12-05T20:17:44.691-05:002010-12-05T20:17:44.691-05:00You write that "without all that, and without...You write that "without all that, and without our collective belief in all of that, soldiering is just another profession, and the soldier's 'duty' is no more glorious than a mercenary's job."<br /><br />So "soldiering" is *not* just another profession? Why not?<br /><br />What Giunta has done was courageous and amazing, yes. But you don't have to be a "soldier" to do it--yes, you *can* be a mercenary, in fact you can be a merchant (or more likely, a firefighter, a policeman, a doctor, etc.).<br /><br />It horrifies me how people think that soldiers are not just paid employees like so many others, but somehow "something better." Fine: Maybe some of the ideals/comeraderie/training/etc. of some of the world's armies make their soldiers act better and more nobly (than mercenaries, merchants, etc.)... but if you added the same ideals/comeraderie/training/etc. to other jobs (mercenaries, merchants, etc.), you'd see the same there... or in fact maybe better. Because people joining the army are not better people at the outset. Those who really want to save their fellow human beings (and not only "their country") usually choose different career paths: They become social workers, teachers, doctors, developmental aid workers, etc. etc. The only difference is that they don't have as often the *opportunity* to risk their lives for their colleagues there. Else they would.<br /><br />So please let's not fall prey to those who glorify soldiers as something "else," more noble than us mortal men (let alone than those supposedly "horrible" mercenaries). They're just like us. Except that they've chosen to work overseas for good pay and adventures to write home about (or at least so it seems when they're getting recruited), at the risk of serious harm. Some of them get into awful situations and end up doing great stuff (and may reasonably be congratulated for that), while others do average jobs and some even fail miserably.<br /><br />Just like the rest of us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-56634638741266964782010-11-21T23:32:11.884-05:002010-11-21T23:32:11.884-05:00What he did was defend from two fields of fire whi...What he did was defend from two fields of fire while bringing one of his out of the hands of captures. <br /><br />He left no man behind, and the teams followed him.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04720668404781095548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-61153674031741747502010-11-21T01:50:10.637-05:002010-11-21T01:50:10.637-05:00Reading about Giunta gave me goose bumps. What a g...Reading about Giunta gave me goose bumps. What a great story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-20501400213973460662010-11-20T09:16:23.455-05:002010-11-20T09:16:23.455-05:00Why am I surprised people try to look past a wonde...Why am I surprised people try to look past a wonderful story... <br /><br />IMHO: Jealousy. Self-doubt. Suspicion of heroes. Arrogance.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11207222503898286329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-30786928851766947772010-11-19T09:40:19.970-05:002010-11-19T09:40:19.970-05:00Gulliver--great post and as MK said beautifully wr...Gulliver--great post and as MK said beautifully written. Nice work.Lilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18373158801523577733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-3723537053929581152010-11-18T00:08:54.364-05:002010-11-18T00:08:54.364-05:00Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.
Madhu -- I ...Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.<br /><br />Madhu -- I absolutely know where you're coming from here, though I find myself completely unable to articulate the reasons why just now. Hope to get back to this tomorrow, because I too felt uneasy about the sentiments Davidson expressed. Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.Gulliverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12558335790019565924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-54976885107037410592010-11-17T23:21:14.853-05:002010-11-17T23:21:14.853-05:00Great work. Why am I surprised people try to look ...Great work. Why am I surprised people try to look past a wonderful story... always looking for that different angle and maybe get their story talked about. I now live in the town next to where Guinta grew up and hope to some day shake the young man's hand a thank him for his service. His actions and demeanor following and leading up to his award have been a great reminder to the country that men and women are still out their fighting the good fight, every day and every night; under, on and above the sea.bert1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-2019281098673241312010-11-17T19:17:21.699-05:002010-11-17T19:17:21.699-05:00Bravo, sir.
Regarding Patton's quote, it clea...Bravo, sir.<br /><br />Regarding Patton's quote, it clearly makes good tactical sense. That is the way you win battles. It breaks down in a larger strategic context, and in the realm of grand strategy it is clearly not applicable unless your political aim is annihilation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-2669088607678862882010-11-17T18:47:06.642-05:002010-11-17T18:47:06.642-05:00Your writing just keeps getting better and better,...Your writing just keeps getting better and better, Gulliver.<br /><br />What an amazing story. What an amazing person.<br /><br /><br /><em>That's why I'm sanguine where Amy Davidson is wistful, on the question of just what exactly it is that got young Sal Giunta from a sandwich counter in Iowa to a photo op with the president: without war, she suggests, the country would never have had use of this man. "One feels, when one hears that [Giunta's enlistment was not motivated by patriotism, but rather by curiosity about the world], not that war is ennobling but that there is potential in this country that we're missing, or not using as fully as we could. How can we satisfy and make use of that curiosity? It shouldn't take a war to get Sal Giunta out of Subway."</em><br /><br />Something about that excerpt bothered me.<br /><br />As I've mentioned in the comments previously, I grew up in Iowa. Iowa "kids" nearly always want to move away from home for a bit and see the world. Restlessness is what's left of the prairie, it seems. <br /><br />Maybe I'm being sentimental about my upbringing and about the people that I know, but I think working in a sandwich shop in Iowa isn't necessarily wasting any kind of potential. <br /><br />You can't know what is in a man's heart unless he tells you, now can you? It's possible that a life lived behind the sandwich counter may be more meaningful and full of beauty than one lived behind an important desk. Each individual life is precious. If we ever invented some kind of machine to distill a man or a woman's life experience down to the very essence, who knows how bracing that distillate would be for each person? You feel love, you feel hate, you feel longing, you feel hurt, it's all there in either case.<br /><br />Wait, that's not right. He did something special, something above, something unique. And yet, I find myself resisting the notion that his life would necessarily have been "less".<br /><br />How can I reconcile these contradictory thoughts?Madhunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-44430187762090889522010-11-17T17:01:25.566-05:002010-11-17T17:01:25.566-05:00Great post, Gulliver, and beautifully written.
I ...Great post, Gulliver, and beautifully written.<br /><br />I would add that the Dept of State and USAID urgently need to institutionalize a similar spirit of sacrifice and duty in order to transform themselves into effective partners for expeditionary interagency efforts. While there are <b>many</b> extraordinarily dedicated and courageous individuals among their ranks, shortfalls in staff willing to deploy, and restrictions on (or personal unwillingness to) work outside the wire due to insecurity are seriously hampering operations in Afghanistan. Those problems reflect institutional mindsets that just aren't suited to the roles the USG needs them to play. <br /><br />And to be absolutely clear, I've heard this complaint more often from DOS and USAID officers who've deployed to AF and/or Iraq than I have from US military.MKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09101668944584403261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-7657090956175468432010-11-17T15:10:26.931-05:002010-11-17T15:10:26.931-05:00Great post.
There's a lot to be said about Fi...Great post.<br /><br />There's a lot to be said about Fischer and his mentality... and for that matter, about Patton's fallacy. The first cut though -- the way we Americans think about Patton, you'd think he beat Zhukov to Berlin. <br /><br /><br />I need to blog on this, but the shorthand is, Patton got it wrong, Seamus Heaney and Nathan Hale get it right. Killing for your country is much less effective than dying for your country. To paraphrase Heaney, in April, the barley grows up from the grave. Or, a more familiar reference, perhaps, "In Flander's Fields, the Poppies blow..."<br /><br />Requiem for the Croppies<br /><br />The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley...<br />No kitchens on the run, no striking camp...<br />We moved quick and sudden in our own country.<br />The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp.<br />A people hardly marching... on the hike...<br />We found new tactics happening each day: <br />We'd cut through reins and rider with the pike<br />And stampede cattle into infantry, <br />Then retreat through hedges where cavalry must be thrown.<br />Until... on Vinegar Hill... the final conclave.<br />Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.<br />The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave.<br />They buried us without shroud or coffin<br />And in August... the barley grew up out of our grave. <br /><br />Heaney wrote the poem in 1966, on the fiftieth of the 1916 Dublin uprising. It commemorated the croppies of the 1798 uprising. <br /><br />There's a mentality here that we as Americans need to remember and understand, as we continue to send our sons and daughters to kill folks in faraway places. It has to be something worth dying for, else you die in vain.Carrington Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01597864525334775282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-56947228109797498322010-11-17T14:20:28.386-05:002010-11-17T14:20:28.386-05:00Brilliant.
-Deus ExBrilliant. <br /><br />-Deus ExAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755035051021414780.post-89402965981136323642010-11-17T10:37:08.512-05:002010-11-17T10:37:08.512-05:00Lovely, Gulliver. Let's also pay homage to th...Lovely, Gulliver. Let's also pay homage to the families; just as you have a brother who is deploying, you have a sister-in-law who is keeping the home fires burning and caring for two children. Another demonstration of selfless, reflexive impulse to service. <br /><br />As the President said of the families yesterday, they "made Staff Sergeant Giunta into the man that he is."ANVnoreply@blogger.com