The following paragraph is from a post from 2012 titled Tall Hats And Gold Watch Fobs:
"There's a scene from Ted Turner's Gettysburg where Brigadier General John Buford, played by Sam Elliot, scans rocky heights and farm land that would in one day become a battlefield, and he literally spews out these words as he foresees carnage in the Union army if the politicians and generals play their war games as usual...afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chests and say 'what a brave charge it was..... I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this.... It's as if I can actually see the blue troops in one long bloody moment....as if it were already done....as if tomorrow already happened and there ain't nothin you can do about it. He went on to lay out a plan to change that, 'We can block that road till the main body gets here, and deprive the enemy of the high ground'!"
The essence of the scene was that the poor leadership at the top of the Union Army would lead to yet another terrible loss of life....and more carnage The Confederates would somehow get the high stony ground....and the Union Army would have to charge up it as they had to at Fredericksburg. Buford was going to hold back the Confederate infantry until the main body of the Union Army showed up.....they would defend the high ground this time.
Personally I cannot let go of what happened in Vietnam....nor do I even intend to try. Over 58 thousand Americans died in that war. I cannot wrap my mind around the bravery that so many Americans displayed in that cause....a cause where their efforts were not even appreciated by much of the American public. Consequently, whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan or Syria or anywhere that our troops are deployed, I don't want to see men wearing 'tall hats and gold watch fobs' playing any games at all...political or otherwise. Just as the film character of Buford could see tomorrow as if it already happened....I can picture our service men and women put in harms way either in haste or for the wrong reasons.
If anyone has read back in these posts even a few months they would have read where I believe that a major conflagration is coming. There is no stopping it. The outright evil unleashed today cannot be contained forever....or even for long. We do not have the luxury of probing here and there....seeing what the response will be.....and then committing if necessary. It is coming....hold back and prepare! If we attempt to goad Iran then we will have given up planning for reacting.
As kids in Buffalo in the 1950s we would cut a golf ball open for fun. The rubber bands would first appear as we peeled back the cover and we would then cut a little deeper.....and the bands would unravel all at once....and we would laugh. This is what I don't want to see happen because someone thinks that Iran or anyone else will react as someone's model shows that they will react. When conservative talk show hosts chuckle about this or that....and how successful some bombing was....it greatly unsettles me. I'm tired of hearing how much better Donald Trump is than Barack Obama...that man was a communist. Let's drop the politics!
Right now the average conservative would probably be inclined to believe that supporting President Trump in anything and everything that he does is in effect supporting our military....but supporting our military is making sure that we have looked under every stone for something that might be hidden....and weighed every decision to make sure that our ego or pride was not involved in any way. Mistakes will happen.....mistakes always happen in war.....mistakes will find us.....we do not want to go looking for them.
We owe it to our military to do our part....if our politics is determined by our 401 then we will have let them down....if we spend more time analyzing our sports team than history then we will have let them down....if wars are either started because of politics (which we have done) or put off because of pending elections (which we have also done) then we are responsible for the consequences.....if we do not make sure that our leaders know that they do not have carte blanch decision-making....that they are constrained by our Constitution.....and also by their promises....if we do not do this then will will have let our military down.
There will be plenty of opportunity in the future....even demands....for our leadership to act quickly and decisively. If we cannot at least be sober-minded....humble....and seeking of God's guidance when we contemplate the war ahead of us then we do a disservice to our military.
"There's a scene from Ted Turner's Gettysburg where Brigadier General John Buford, played by Sam Elliot, scans rocky heights and farm land that would in one day become a battlefield, and he literally spews out these words as he foresees carnage in the Union army if the politicians and generals play their war games as usual...afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chests and say 'what a brave charge it was..... I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this.... It's as if I can actually see the blue troops in one long bloody moment....as if it were already done....as if tomorrow already happened and there ain't nothin you can do about it. He went on to lay out a plan to change that, 'We can block that road till the main body gets here, and deprive the enemy of the high ground'!"
The essence of the scene was that the poor leadership at the top of the Union Army would lead to yet another terrible loss of life....and more carnage The Confederates would somehow get the high stony ground....and the Union Army would have to charge up it as they had to at Fredericksburg. Buford was going to hold back the Confederate infantry until the main body of the Union Army showed up.....they would defend the high ground this time.
Personally I cannot let go of what happened in Vietnam....nor do I even intend to try. Over 58 thousand Americans died in that war. I cannot wrap my mind around the bravery that so many Americans displayed in that cause....a cause where their efforts were not even appreciated by much of the American public. Consequently, whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan or Syria or anywhere that our troops are deployed, I don't want to see men wearing 'tall hats and gold watch fobs' playing any games at all...political or otherwise. Just as the film character of Buford could see tomorrow as if it already happened....I can picture our service men and women put in harms way either in haste or for the wrong reasons.
If anyone has read back in these posts even a few months they would have read where I believe that a major conflagration is coming. There is no stopping it. The outright evil unleashed today cannot be contained forever....or even for long. We do not have the luxury of probing here and there....seeing what the response will be.....and then committing if necessary. It is coming....hold back and prepare! If we attempt to goad Iran then we will have given up planning for reacting.
As kids in Buffalo in the 1950s we would cut a golf ball open for fun. The rubber bands would first appear as we peeled back the cover and we would then cut a little deeper.....and the bands would unravel all at once....and we would laugh. This is what I don't want to see happen because someone thinks that Iran or anyone else will react as someone's model shows that they will react. When conservative talk show hosts chuckle about this or that....and how successful some bombing was....it greatly unsettles me. I'm tired of hearing how much better Donald Trump is than Barack Obama...that man was a communist. Let's drop the politics!
Right now the average conservative would probably be inclined to believe that supporting President Trump in anything and everything that he does is in effect supporting our military....but supporting our military is making sure that we have looked under every stone for something that might be hidden....and weighed every decision to make sure that our ego or pride was not involved in any way. Mistakes will happen.....mistakes always happen in war.....mistakes will find us.....we do not want to go looking for them.
We owe it to our military to do our part....if our politics is determined by our 401 then we will have let them down....if we spend more time analyzing our sports team than history then we will have let them down....if wars are either started because of politics (which we have done) or put off because of pending elections (which we have also done) then we are responsible for the consequences.....if we do not make sure that our leaders know that they do not have carte blanch decision-making....that they are constrained by our Constitution.....and also by their promises....if we do not do this then will will have let our military down.
There will be plenty of opportunity in the future....even demands....for our leadership to act quickly and decisively. If we cannot at least be sober-minded....humble....and seeking of God's guidance when we contemplate the war ahead of us then we do a disservice to our military.
