Carol H Tucker Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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beladona Memorial Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
Recently I read a blog post that asked if the United States had become enmeshed in a “forever war”. I have been thinking about that phrase, remembering the lessons we learned [and those we apparently didn’t learn] from losing so many of my generation in Nam. Surely the blogger exaggerated, surely we have been at peace until just recently?
So I found the Timeline of United States Military Operations [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations] and was somewhat stunned at the list. Every single year since 1980, my country has been involved in combat situations in other countries. Yup, you read that right – for the past 35 years, we have asked our military to go fight somewhere! And since 2001, for 14 years, we have been actively at war in the Middle East:
2001 to the present – War in Afghanistan
2003 to 2011 – War in Iraq
2014 to the present – “intervention” against DAESH
That explains a lot, doesn’t it? There is no such thing as the draft anymore, our armies are filled with those who choose to fight for one reason or another. We have created a “warrior class” for the first time in our history, and I am not quite sure our society is quite geared to take care of them. I always wondered why Americans are so hated in the Mid-East, but I imagine that 14 years of staring at the muzzles of our guns, and living in the rubble of our bombs, has probably have influenced an entire generation’s attitudes. And after a decade and a half of conflict, death and destruction is it any wonder that there are so many refugees pouring out of the area and trying to go elsewhere, anywhere where they can just live and work?
What needs to happen to end these on-going conflicts? When will Americans decide that they are done? Certainly the US left Nam without achieving the stated goals and objectives of that war– after 20 years, we just upped and left. The 100 Years War ended with England basically doing the same thing after the Battle of Castillon in 1453. Does something specific need to happen? Are the terrorists right and if they make us pay dearly enough, we will lose our appetite?
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