RE: Ike on war...
November 1, 2019 at 9:51 am
(This post was last modified: November 1, 2019 at 9:53 am by Brian37.)
(November 1, 2019 at 9:26 am)Gae Bolga Wrote:(November 1, 2019 at 9:01 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: And why would a man who claimed to hate war spend almost his entire adult life as a soldier?
Can't speak for Eisenhower, and it's worth noting that his rehabilitation hinges on a later claim he made - as is so often the case with politicians......but...
I'd have stayed in the service, hating war...because I felt deeply committed to and fulfilled by peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. I think people forget that the US military is the largest and most competent relief organization the world has ever seen. Even more fundamentally, I liked to imagine that what we really wanted in the service were people who truly wished to avoid conflict. If the choice of leadership and personnel is between a bunch of bloodthirsty Cleti and a natural pacifist...well.
It's at least possible that Eisenhower felt something similar, that he contextualized his service in light of what good he'd accomplished or what conflict he'd avoided or minimized...rather than his body count. Soldiers are as complicated and fuzzy as anyone else. There's definitely truth in the notion that no one can detest war like a person who's been disgusted by it, and their participation in it, first hand.
I once had my ass kicked by a former high school classmate. After graduation I ran into her and at the time she was dating a Viet Nam Vet. I made the mistake at the time of telling him that I supported him, but not the politics for being there. I look back at it now, and she was at a minimum 12 years younger than the guy she was dating. Forget the age difference.
So after that meeting, a couple days later, I get a call from her, she tells me to come over to her house, which I do. I follow her to the basement and suddenly she ambushes me with martial arts. I am not kidding. It wasn't a matter for me of "don't hit a female". I was literally "What the fuck did I do"? A couple punches to my chest and face I ran out of there.
Apparently I pissed off her boyfriend and he took offense to my objection to our involvement in Nam, which was political, not based on his service.
It is possible to value service and hate war.
