Quote:
Originally Posted by Jin-Roh
I have more respect for the soldier that risks the ostracism of his friends, family, community, and country for something he believes in than the soldier who murders simply to save himself from shame.
Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam vet, said it best in his book The Things They Carried, in which he considered running to Canada, but:
"My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame."
"I was a coward. I went to the war."
|
I find this funny. What it came down to was not a sense of shame. It was courage. I give the man all the props ion the world, for fighting. My father is a veteran, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for those men ( and women, I guess Id better be PC.). But to turn around many years later and try to say that his decision to go to war was cowardice is preposterious. He knows that when he went to the service it took huge stones. Time has obviously changed his outlook, and thats fine. He can choose to spin it to fit his current agenda, but any soldier will tell you that being a coward does not make you stay and fight, facing a real possibility of death.