I didn't want to finish reading this book

[ensho]

I started reading it but it roiled my emotions, roiled my gut, roiled my heart. But, as a woman I had to keep reading.

I hate war, I hate our military, I hate the pentagon, I hate Barons who make trillions off war.

I didn't want to finish reading this book. But I did.


You Know When The Men Are Gone
by Siobhan Fallon

Siobhan did good

[High_On_Love]

1. Hey

I hate war and the warhawks and the mercenary shadow armies, but gee, I don't hate our military. There are good people, good progressives, good democrats, in every branch.

My hope for the world is that all war ends, so that there is no NEED for a military.

[ensho]

3. I can't love our military when they rape their own

or when they let the religiously insane have any military power

[sarge43]

2. War story alert

I was attending a history course at the University the evening Reagan ordered the air strike on Libya. When the news came in, the kids in the class, especially the guys who I knew for certain weren't ever going to enlist, cheered and yukked it up. "Get the sumnabitch!" was one of the milder things shouted. The Prof (veteran of Normandy Beach) and I (career military) looked at one another and just shrugged.

Real easy to cheer or condemn from the sidelines.

[ensho]

4. kick

nt

[Pterodactyl]

5. You hate the military????

News flash: The US military is among the finest bunch of folks you'll ever meet. Every time I meet a military person, I'm always impressed with their professionalism and genuine niceness.

[ensho]

6. read post 3

nt

[Pterodactyl]

8. 99.9999% of the military is not like that.

And they are out there defending you, even if you hate them.

[groovedaddy]

7. Our military, past and present, is made up of millions of people. First of all, just given the

sheer numbers, there will be (or have been) all kinds of people in the ranks, ranging from the kind-hearted to the psychopathic. Secondly, the very nature of war itself will often bring out the dormant dark-side of any number of those involved.

Then Colonel Curtis LeMay was asked about the morality of the firebombings of Japan during WWII.
His first response: "War is immoral."

[Sequoia]

9. and Sherman said, "War is hell".

Sniff, today's April 14th. The war is what killed Abe Lincoln in the end.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. When I read the "I hate our military" comment, I did not jump

to the conclusion that this OP meant hating individual people in the military. I put my opinion in there, I guess, and assumed it meant hating the institution or the attitude. And I hate that too.

But a good book about the military is still interesting.