Comments on: Episode 51: A lonely kind of honor

By: Again

Again — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:44:00 +0000

again, Steve - great story

do you know the movie Europa, Europa, telling the story of a jewish boy, joining the Hitler Youth to survive?

There are situations - so unjust, so far away from the state of justice, where the wrongdoers so often are not made accountable, where so many people got guilty for ignoring their duty to demand justice, that nearly nothing goes right anymore - and then, the probability for a successful decision (a decision supporting your interests) tends to zero - or IOW: everything you do is probably wrong

there is only one way to avoid that - not to allow situations like that

but that’s hard in a world, where most people prefer to be apolitical - not to care about unjustice as long as it doesn’t hit them in the face

they don’t understand that justice can’t be ignored, just “lost” - everyone has to pay the price if you lose the most efficient way to interact in your group - you can’t allow only an “area of unjustice” where someone else lives - unjustice is like cancer. Either the body destroys it early enough - or it has to suffer horribly. The whole body, not only the few cancer cells..

By: Larry the Red

Larry the Red — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:01:02 +0000

My number was in the low 60s and I got called up, but I flunked the physical (bad eyes). Like Steve in the episode, to this day I’m not sure what I would have done had I been physically fit to serve. As Horace pointed out, and Hizzhoner underscores, the choices were complicated and very difficult back then. The situation was a lot more complicated, too, than you’d know from the current state of debate about how apt Vietnam analogies are to Iraq. We were not far removed from the Cuban missile crisis, and many people genuinely feared a Communist takeover. Many also found the domino theory at least credible, eeven if they also understood Vietnam to be more of a nationalistic than an ideological struggle. It wasn’t just the dirty f***ing hippies versus the all-American patriots, or the bloodthirsty warmongers versus the peace-loving members of the reality-based community. Then as now, it was hard to get a handle on what was really going on and what course forward to take. The more things change …

By: alwayshope

alwayshope — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:19:34 +0000

As a protester from way back, Viet Nam and this fiasco, I really liked this one. Good point, Steve, about those who cheer from the sidelines and let others take the risk. That kind of particiption is too easy to have much value.

I’ve read stories about some of those brave soldiers who are refusing to fight this immoral war and my heart goes out to them, for all the reasons Steve and Horace pointed out. Those men and women have my respect and I pray that the difficult, lonely and honorable path they have chosen leads them to a happy life.

By: hizzhoner

hizzhoner — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:54:04 +0000

Lottery number #33….I was going to be drafted, no question about it….and I hated the war and I hated the military…but I enlisted anyway. Did that make me a hypocrit? In some minds, maybe it did. But what tipped the scales as far as I was concerned was my loyalty to my friends who were or who had served, some of whom were wounded and emotionally “messed up”. It was that feeling that if I didn’t go, another friend might have to take my place and the thought that the person serving in my place might be maimed or killed because I didn’t go was too much for me to deal with.

hizzhoner

By: buzzflash.net

buzzflash.net — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:04:08 +0000

A lonely kind of honor. A Cafe episode about conscience and war…

Tad stared at his brother for a few seconds, as though trying to get a fix on whether he could trust his words. Then he said, “My unit’s being rotated back to Iraq.” “Shit,” said Tom….