Did survivors and their kids squander their sacrifice?
Last week my brother recommended I catch up with the History Channels ‘WWII in HD”. It shows new footage of World War II, much in color, and in high definition. The show is excellent, and I’ve watched 7 of the 12 episodes… but I stopped.
Why?
I couldn’t bear to watch the effort, suffering, misery, and anguish knowing what lay ahead. I felt so bad that the World War II’s generation that survived and their kids had screwed up so badly what the folks I was seeing had fought for.
I’m curious as to what the surviving veterans think of the state of the country they fought for now? When I talk to them, as I do to most I see wearing a Veterans jacket or hat, they don’t seem particularly thrilled. I’m not sure if the negativity is a function of where I live (conservative southern Utah), or if it applies across the board.
In England, an enterprising younger person, asked WWII veterans to write him about this topic:
But was it worth it? Her answer – and the answer of many of her contemporaries, now in their 80s and 90s – is a resounding No.
They despise what has become of the Britain they once fought to save. It’s not our country any more, they say, in sorrow and anger.
England is further on the path to ruin than we are, especially with regards to poor immigration policies – which was a common theme of what the veterans wrote about.
Anyway, maybe I’ll get back to WWII in HD…. eventually. Right now, it is too hard to view.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:21 am
It’s across the board, they see an elite gang of politicians and know nothing academic/media cowards ruining the heritage of their grandkids.
They know they spoiled their kids at least materially but see the Vietnam sellout as the major cause of today’s problems.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:20 am
How convenient to put your views in their mouths! The WWII veterans we see and can talk to are the lucky ones. They survived the war and have enjoyed a long life in prosperous times. They are neither dead, poverty stricken, nor encased in care institutions that depend on a grateful nation to support with generous government funding. Are any of your friends and associates making speech for more government spending for the vets who lost their purposeful lives in our war(s)? Or do they favor strident and morally spiked speech about tax and spending cuts?
November 30th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I had mixed feelings of a different nature. I’m no peacenik but I wonder if we could have won without wholesale slaughter of German and Japanese civilians, as was shown on the series? I think, however, we have gone too far the other way, where missions are scrapped if even the possibility of collateral damage exists.
Its interesting that FDR is put out as some sort of great hero by schools and the MSM, but he was responsible for most of the destruction, as well as wholesale abrogation of civil rights of American citizens of Japanese descent. Truman approved the deaths of several hundred thousand Japanese civilians, including women and children. The conventional wisdom is that he did it to save American lives, but that sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me. Both Democrats. Meanwhile Bush is branded a war criminal for locking up a couple hundred Muslims in a country club prison on a tropical island.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
#2… what are you talking about. I wondered what they thought and reported on the few I had talked too. Not a one seemed very pleased with where the country is. All were glad somebody took the time to chat with them.
I wonder, #2, if you read the posts.
As to the rest of your post, #2, I don’t even understand it. BDS fever?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
#2… I regularly say what government I’d give up to have lower taxes and less spending. MOST OF IT. Defense would be touched as well, in my world. There is a lot of bloat there caused by Congressional inteference and silly General/Admiral turf wars. I’m EVEN willing to get rid of the Marine Corp. As painful as it would be because of history and heritage, I’d do it.
So quit with the attaching of silly strawmen to my views. And PLEASE stop the silly debate tactics – they were old in college and have no particular use in the real world.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” –Thomas Jefferson
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/crime&id=7147876
December 4th, 2009 at 9:09 am
How convenient to say I’m making up what I heard someone say! Most, by the way, are encased in government run Medicare, a program looted by politicians who let the VA hospitals languish at the same time. I listened to an old WWII Marine in Klamath Falls, OR rail against the treatment of Vietnam vets. Similar words came from serious geezer WWII vets in Lafayette, LA, Salem, VA, and Fort Lewis, WA. The same from my neighbor, a Navy destroyer boatswain’s mate in the South Pacific, and my buddy Ted in Pasadena.