It’s For You!
Dean Barnett at Weekly Standard on the ringing of history’s phone:
In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn’t answer the phone … now, once again, history is calling. Fortunately, the present generation appears more reminiscent of their grandparents than their parents.
Meanwhile, on the homefront, Kristol re troop supportage:
With the ongoing progress of the surge, and the obvious fact that the vast majority of the troops want to fight and win the war, the “support-the-troops-but-oppose-what-they’re-doing” position has become increasingly untenable. How can you say with a straight face that you support the troops while advancing legislation that would undercut their mission and strengthen their enemies?
You can’t. So those on the cutting edge of progressive opinion are beginning to give up on even pretending to support the troops. Instead, they now slander the troops.
Re Barnett’s piece, a few thoughts. The vast majority of today’s youth are not being asked to do anything in today’s wars, and most aren’t, but at least they are doing us the favor of not marching against America’s interests. Were they asked to do something at this point, we may well see more indignant protest at the thought. I believe had they been asked to enlist in the wake of Sept. 11, they would have in droves, however. It would have forced a lot of soul-searching and engendered a sense of civic responsibility that may have strong resonance today, despite attitudes about Iraq. Too bad the Bush administration didn’t ask back when people wanted to know what they could do.
But it is noteworthy that tens of thousands have signed up since Iraq started, knowing full well what it meant, and hundreds of thousands serve willingly, as volunteers.
Surls makes a point in comments, though I get the idea Barnett is talking more about the absense of widescale protest. Again, they don’t have to. Being involved is optional.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 5:10 pm on Saturday, July 21, 2007
8 Responses to “It’s For You!”
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July 21st, 2007 at 6:08 pm
“In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn’t answer the phone…”
Who the hell do you think fought in the Vietnam War?
We lost over 200,000 casualties, including 58,000 killed, and that’s not counting the thousands of guys who died out of theater supporting American garrisons in Europe and Asia.
And, the vast majority of our soldiers and casualties in Vietnam came from the generation born right after WWII.
And, most of the people who fought in Vietnam were volunteers too.
So, put a sock in it, pal .
July 21st, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I have to go along with Dave on this and ask “so what am I, chopped liver?” I served. Both of my brothers made careers in the Navy. Had I been stronger I would have done so. I lost a husband to that war. Boomers all. Boomers who were stabbed in the back by the same craven lack of leadership in Congress, the same lies from the Media and the same lack of guidance from a Marxist academia that we still face today. I really do get tired of being categorized with those of my generation who spent their youth throwing a loud temper tantrum, in an irresponsible and worthless pursuit of collectivized narcissism.
I understand and appreciate what the author means, but the picture he paints is the media picture. A popular, but incomplete history.
As for the supposed change to demonizing the military: The support has always been nothing more than lip-service and a lie, whether it was the lie of supporting the troops but not the mission, or the feigned concern for our “children.” The slander has been there from the beginning (Gitmo, torture, Abu Ghraib, Haditha), and is only now becoming more overt and louder.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I’m not convinced Barnett,s talking as much about the presence or absence of widespread proest as much as he is stepping up to the plate. I guess if you conflate the two it’s a bit more acceptable to me - there’s was a LOT more stepping up by baby boomers during Vietnam than populat perception today allows for and a lot less baby boomer antiwar support than today’s populat perception allows for.. One was low key, and one anything but.
I’m with Dave and saltydog. Where does Dean leave me and so many of my friends who volunteered? And from Boston no less, Dean. Barnett is usually very good and usually very clear in what his point is. Either he slipped up making his point, or he’s painting with too broad a brush.
July 21st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
salty…do you by any chance know, what happened to Rebecca?
July 21st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
“Fortunately, the present generation appears more reminiscent of their grandparents than their parents.”
With all due respect to the current generation, the Baby Boomers lost more guys killed in Vietnam EVERY FOUR MONTHS from 1967-69 then we’ve lost in 17 years fiddle-fuckling around in Iraq.
In truth, the baby-boomer generation is a lot more reminiscent of the WWII generation than the current generation is…at least when it comes to fighting and dying for your country.
July 21st, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I’ll let it lay since every one before me has done yeoman’s duty on this subject. I will say that I volunteered, USN 65-67 and USMC 73-82. And since I was born in 46, I sort of fit the bill.
July 21st, 2007 at 11:59 pm
El Cid, I was curious about that too.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:40 am
Frankly, Dean’s intro struck a sour note with this boomer too — and not just in terms of neglecting the courageous folks who stepped up to volunteer for military service either. In retrospect, our collective betrayal of those soldiers seems undeniable and unforgivable, though revisionists do exist amoung us, but at the same time, those who protested the war were not all drug crazed hippies or winter soldiers. Their brothers, friends, lovers, husbands were being conscripted for a war that many of them, misguided or not, believed was wrong, and protesting meant a hell of lot more than posting anti-war messages on blogs does today. We were a generation who put ourselves where our mouths were, whether it was volunteering, protesting, or advocating free love and abandoning the society we grew up in to practice it. We weren’t answering phones, we were calling on each other to make good on what we preached, from civil rights to feminism, and we fought, in a rich and complex assortment of ways, for what we believed. Shoot, we’re still fighting amongst ourselves nigh into retirement. We made our own money too, and we spent it.
We also raised the kids that Dean now admires, and I’m unabashedly proud of how that turned out. I sometimes think the tweeners don’t realize how much of the social order they take for granted now was created by boomers who questionned and rejected traditional authoritarian constraints. I don’t just mean Woodstock, either. I like the current generation as a whole, and they face a whole new set of issues I wouldn’t want to wish on anybody, but they seem pretty tame in comparison to the boomers I grew up with.