Rotten to the Corps

Scott Hardie | May 31, 2005
I couldn't help but notice this self-promotional ad on Yahoo's main menu today:



Maybe somebody should tell them that Memorial Day is for honoring soldiers killed in service, while Veterans Day is for honoring still-living soldiers. Or are they really putting on a concert for the dead? Was Destiny's Child "rocking" Arlington National Cemetery today? I can't think of a worse way to honor the brave soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Wait, yes I can: This November, we might have to endure the Carl's Jr. "It's Hot!" Veterans Day 2005 Extravaganza, featuring a duet between Paris Hilton and Ashlee Simpson where they kiss at the end. Thank you, corporate America, for your latest entry in the nothing-is-sacred-anymore sweepstakes.

Anna Gregoline | May 31, 2005
I'm positive this is just ignorance.

And this is the kind of thing everyone can get behind and go rah rah and ignore the brutal realities of war.

Amy Austin | May 31, 2005
hahahahaha...

For some reason, all I can think of is a Godsmack on Destiny Child's forehead...

...followed by a KISS somewhere...

Jackie Mason | May 31, 2005
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Kris Weberg | May 31, 2005
Scott, we live in a country where most Americans believe the GOP and George Bush Support Our Troops (TM) even as they slash Vet benefits and funding for VA hospitals, refuse to attend or allow pictures of military funerals, and employ seldom-used National Guard service contract clauses to pull up unsuspecting 40 and 50 year old family men because the military can't otherwise maintain deployment levels.

Of course this is appropriate to our society's present understanding of the concept "honor American veterans."

My advice to you is to figure out a way to get a piece of the T-shirt revenues and then relax.

Ooh, since Veteran's Day was originally Armistice Day, maybe Paris and Ashlee could perform "Sink the Bismark," followed by Paris Hilton leading a Q and A session, "Who's Bismarck? And Was He Hot?" I think that idea's worth a percentage....

Amy Austin | May 31, 2005
Wow... spoken like a true cynic! (But funny... as much cynicism is...)

Anna Gregoline | May 31, 2005
I guess I'm a cynic too because I see nothing cynical about what Kris said - simply the truth!

Amy Austin | May 31, 2005
You think that Paris and Ashlee potentially doing a duet of "Sink the Bismarck" doesn't sound cynical, but is "simply the truth"???

Anna Gregoline | May 31, 2005
Uh, no, of course not, since that was the joke portion of his post. But the entire first part - simply the truth.

Aaron Fischer | June 1, 2005
I’m simply tired of listening to political rhetoric. If there ever was a time that everyone should set aside their difference and remember those who have fallen before us, it’s Memorial Day. Regardless of your agreement or disagreement with each and every conflict and reason for a death, we need to reflect on those who have gone before us and protected freedoms. Memorial Day is so much more than we give it credit for. We should use this time to remember our friends and family that have gone before us into the pearly beyond. Remember what they stood for, remember what they did in their lifetimes, and remember their words to the generations to come.

Scott Hardie | June 1, 2005
Well said, Aaron, and true. I had woken up on Memorial Day intending to write something august on the site, but I have had the good fortune not to have a single friend or family member killed in service, so I was hoping a former soldier or sailor on TC might take it up instead. But in the end it's a day for quiet reflection, not pronouncements and definitely not Destiny's Child. :-)

Anna Gregoline | June 1, 2005
I agree with the above sentiments about remembering sacrifice - but we also owe it to those service members, in my opinion, to fight against senseless conflicts and the expenditures of any more lives.

Mike Eberhart | June 1, 2005
Excellent statement Aaron. That's exactly what I would have said if I would have gotten here sooner. Excellent.

Michael Paul Cote | June 1, 2005
Very nice Aaron.
Hey Scott, Could we get Justin Timberlake to show up with Paris and Ashley to make their boobs fall out or would that be too redundant? And would they sing or lip sync to Johnny Horton's version?

Amy Austin | June 1, 2005
The redundancy being Janet? Or the fact that Paris and Ashlee are already "out" (both literally and figuratively speaking)???

Michael Paul Cote | June 1, 2005
I just figured would two more "boobs" on stage be a bit too much!

Amy Austin | June 1, 2005
Wouldn't it actually be six? (Or seven, if you counted JT???) ;-DDD

Jackie Mason | June 2, 2005
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Kris Weberg | June 2, 2005
I'd like to point out that the content of my previous missive does not involve an assessment of the relative merits of current U.S. military activity, but simply criticizes both the current government and the American public for ignoring exactly the sort of sacrifices Memorial Day is meant to honor, and for policies that would seem to make life more difficult for military personnel and their families. I find that extraordinarily relevant to a discussion of this holiday and its intended meaning.

As to the rest: quite how a sardonically-posed support of increases in veterans' benefits, greater funding for VA hospitals, and publicly honoring American casualties has anything to do with "blaming the troops" is beyond me. Nor do I understand how quite correctly pointing to the public record on these matters is a grievous sin of some sort. Using these standards myself, shall I assume that my opponents in this conversation support cutting benefits and hospital funding? Shall I assume that they oppose full dress, public funerals to honor military personnel who've sacrificed themselves in their country's name?

Of course not. Leaving aside the proud military backgrounds of certain correspondents, that would be deeply unfair in general, a willful misreading of their sentiments. Would that people would refrain from such wilful misreading where my own post is concerned.

Amy Austin | June 2, 2005
I hope that I'm not part of that plurality, Kris... my remark was only about the cynical-but-comical hyperbole of your post -- no politics (and no fuss!) intended. Seems that this might just be one of those times when it would have been best for me just to stay quiet.

Kris Weberg | June 3, 2005
No, Amy, I don't include you in that plurality. As to my views on the military, I've said it before, I'll say it again here:

It pains me when I hear that someone hates the military; and it pains me, too, when someone in the military thinks that I must hate it because I oppose the war it is fighting. Soldiers stand and fight and sometimes die, give years of their lives and the best of their bodies and minds for their country's defense, and make a gift of themselves and their potential to the American people.

And for it, they are given the blame of a few; for their sacrifice they are often ignored and often spat upon; and the people they are willing to give their lives for often seem to turn on them. A soldier doesn't demand to be called a hero, but a soldier doesn't deserve to be called a criminal, and doesn't deserve to shoulder the prejudice of an unfair blame.

I can understand why a soldier might hate someone who criticizes the war, why they rightly bristle when people denounce the use of the miltary as though it were a crime, and why an idle criticism is the worst wound, the one inflicted from behind, by the people the soldier tirelessly works to protect.

Yes, when protesters tell soldiers they are participating in murder the protesters are hateful, when politicians tell them their sacrifice has been a waste or a mistake the politicians are hurtfully wrong, and when the crimes of a few individuals are described as the crimes of all the Army it is a travesty of justice. I can understand why this reaction occurs. To be a soldier is to feel a scrutiny that most of us can't imagine. But understanding it doesn't make it fair, or right.

I understand the necessity of the military, and I believe that soldiers get a raw deal in public opinion more often than they should; but that's a far different thing than deciding to rubber-stamp an idiotic war, or ignore those rare abuses within and of the military as part of some grossly unjust compensation.

All soldiers are not criminals, but William Calley was; all generals are not lunatics, but Field Marshal Haig was; all missions are not foolish, but Vietnam was. Do not mistake these instants for the whole.

I believe that the military, and of it, the lives of soldiers, are invaluable; tha they play the key role in maintaining the security of this country. A soldier gives up a lot, even a kind of freedom, to defend freedom for the rest of us.

And that's why I get mad as Hell when I see someone who doesn't seem to give a damn about soldiers sending them off into a war that was poorly planned. That's why I loathe policies that put soldiers on the front lines with nothing but high praise behind them, rather than the tools they need and the mission architecture their success requires. It's why I hold in utter contempt a leader who built a war on lies and wishful thinking, and sent good men to perform with admirable courage and grace in a manner almost designed to force their failure.

It's why I'm sickened by a President who speaks of supporting the troops while cutting veterans' benefits left and right to make his budget, a Defense Secretary who talks of easy success and does everything to preclude it, and most of all by an Administration that wants to enjoy the political fruits of war without doing the difficult work of properly planning and directing it. They do not support the military. Their praise for the use they make of it is not praise for a soldier, but praise for themselves.

A soldier never dies for a mistake, but for the country. Where the country is mistaken, the soldier sometimes dies defending it, but this is not the defense of its mistake. Where the country is misled, the soldier fights for it still. The soldier loves America, not because America is never wrong, but because a soldier knows better than most that America must be preserved, that this nation must be defended because it can and does achieve an unsurpassed good when it is right. To let it be destroyed for its mistakes is to rob humanity of that good.

These are the sorts of things I think of on Memorial Day.

Amy Austin | June 3, 2005
Now *that* was an excellent statement. "Hear, hear", Kris! And thank you for your true Memorial Day thoughts.

Kris Weberg | June 3, 2005
As noted, it's an older post, and certainly my own political opinions are in there, but politics aside, I'd hope for substantial agreement with the rest of it.

Amy Austin | June 3, 2005
I know... I remember reading it the first time, and I think it was a very appropriate statement that bears repeating in this discussion -- "politics aside".

Kris Weberg | June 3, 2005
Heh. Sorry. Gets hard to keep track of when who jumped into this ongoibng conversation.

Amy Austin | June 3, 2005
Sure, I know... no worries. ;-)

Jackie Mason | June 3, 2005
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Anna Gregoline | June 3, 2005
To play devil's advocate though - for most people, it's just one day off of work to hang out and have a picnic - I think that Americans often don't really think about the reasons for the seasons.

Kris Weberg | June 3, 2005
Doesn't make that right, though.

Anna Gregoline | June 3, 2005
Uh, duh.

Scott Hardie | June 4, 2005
Is that necessary, Anna?

[Never mind.]

Anna Gregoline | June 4, 2005
I had posted a reply to that but since the site was wonky I don't know if it went through. But regardless, probably better that it wasn't up since nothing I say seems to really work anymore, anywhere. Blah.

Jackie Mason | June 5, 2005
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Anna Gregoline | June 6, 2005
It's ok. I shouldn't have said anything in this thread anyway because I feel it's the same thread that has resurfaced about three times on this board.