Some military person in Ken Burns's Vietnam War doc:
(Paraphrasing because I watched it yesterday): "We weren't prepared for Vietnam because the last war we fought was World War 2, which required very different strategy & tactics."
Me: *spits out my drink*
Are you not going to mention KOREA, motherfucker? I know the US got itself entrenched in Vietnam at the tail end of that, but what about motherfucking Korea? My grandpa was drafted. What do you mean the last war was WW2? Then what was THAT?
I found that very odd. Maybe that was somewhat out of context or something, but I just found it odd.
Is that what they mean when they call it the "forgotten war"? Is it really just not brought up even when military veterans are talking about military history?
It just seems weird to be like "the US military had no experience at all with this sort of conflict" when yes, they did. It was very RECENT experience at the time, but it definitely seems relevant.
Just not talking about it, huh?
That's ok, my grandpa never talked about it either.
The only things I know related to his military service in Korea are: he was the company carpenter, & he wouldn't go to fireworks shows with us when I was a kid because he supposedly hated the sound. He's been dead a long time & was mentally gone before that, so that's probably all I'll ever know.
So yeah, I guess you can just memory-hole that. Probably shouldn't though.
I did grow up really patriotic & "rah-rah USA!" I was a tween around 9/11, so I got hit hard with the patriotism cannon, but
I do think the fact that I knew Grandpa had served in a war he didn't have much to say about was one of the things that kept me from fully getting into the military hero myth.
If being a soldier was so great & glorious, I would have heard about it. Instead, at BEST he was miserable & didn't want to be there & at worst...well, I'll never know.
Conscription is such a great evil. Incalculable moral injury.
Like I said, beyond "company carpenter" I have zero idea what he did or didn't do in Korea. None. I just don't know.
I do know that, if left alone, my grandpa—at the time a newly married farmer with a kid on the way—would never have gone out looking for someone to harm. He didn't even fucking hunt deer.
It is so fucking fucked up to drag people out to kill & die for you. What evil.
People are responsible for their own moral choices. I'm not denying individual responsibility.
It's just that so many people would stay home & not bother a soul if allowed real freedom of choice. How horrible is it to strong-arm people into doing grievous harm that they have no interest in doing?
I honestly think the moral injury is intentional though in a system that thrives on violence. Coercing people to violate their conscience is a way of breaking them & getting them to accept abuse & violence as inevitable.
I dunno, that's a half-baked thought still, but I think it's a thing.
@artemis there's a relevant line in the movie Troy:
"Imagine a king who fights his own battles. Wouldn't that be a sight?"
Artemis
Dave Alvarado
A feral Kass (they/she)