Row on Row
You are
What you do
When it counts
-The Masao
(The day after Memorial Day. --Nick) We had a barbecue and some games yesterday. Severely reduced patrol schedule. It just means we have to work that much harder today, but it was nice having the day off. It was literally my first full day off since I left home. It makes me a little uncomfortable to celebrate Memorial Day. I don’t really feel like eating hot dogs and drinking beer and going to a big tire sale that day. Kind of feels sacrilegious.
I would like to be an author. I’d also like to be a musician, or to play video games for a living. I’ve always planned to go back to school to get a postgraduate degree. Travel around the world doing research for my books. I can’t do any of those things. I am increasingly worried at this point about who will stay and fight if I leave. This enemy, this ideal that we are working against…it’s not going to stop. People refuse to admit we’re even at war. They refuse to accept the nature of the enemy. They say that to acknowledge these things is to give in to people trying to manipulate our fears.
Some things should be feared. Our enemy’s intended long-term goal will mean subjugation and oppression of every man, woman and child on the planet. You have to see these people up close to realize the hatred they have for all things Western and free. It will never go away. No amount of aid or diplomacy will ever calm them. We must destroy them utterly; and the sooner we commit to that destruction, the less American soldiers we will lose fighting pointless holding actions. The less American firemen and policemen will die trying to save victims of terror. The less American schoolchildren or businessmen will become victims.
The people who deny the nature of this fight are hobbling us. It is because of these people that no matter what the circumstances or hour of my death, I will die terrified. Afraid that I’ve not done enough to keep this fight away from my family. And afraid that despite all my efforts, some people will still manage to surrender the country to the enemy.
The holiday is to celebrate those who fall protecting our way of life. I tell you that this life is not natural. By my own eyes I affirm that the natural way of things is brutal and harsh and full of graphic, noisy death. Those who fall do so not to keep you in khakis and iPods and digital cable and horrible pop music, but to keep your life from descending back into the norm. The way it is all over the world except for America. They keep us from becoming what all of humanity used to be. They maintain our forward progress and hunt down and kill those who want us to revert to their level. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with saying damn the rest of the world, I want my family and my countrymen to be safe and happy, and I’ll pay for that with my body and soul if necessary.
The fallen. We can never be as good as them. We can never achieve their level of honor. We can only pick up their torch and continue their bloody, unhappy work. Maybe if we give enough of ourselves, they will be able to sleep, in the field where the poppies blow.
I’m sorry for getting all serious. I just hate Memorial Day. As long as there are memories, I will hate it. I go on leave in a couple days. I promise to get back to talking about video games and movies in my next dispatch.
What you do
When it counts
-The Masao
(The day after Memorial Day. --Nick) We had a barbecue and some games yesterday. Severely reduced patrol schedule. It just means we have to work that much harder today, but it was nice having the day off. It was literally my first full day off since I left home. It makes me a little uncomfortable to celebrate Memorial Day. I don’t really feel like eating hot dogs and drinking beer and going to a big tire sale that day. Kind of feels sacrilegious.
I would like to be an author. I’d also like to be a musician, or to play video games for a living. I’ve always planned to go back to school to get a postgraduate degree. Travel around the world doing research for my books. I can’t do any of those things. I am increasingly worried at this point about who will stay and fight if I leave. This enemy, this ideal that we are working against…it’s not going to stop. People refuse to admit we’re even at war. They refuse to accept the nature of the enemy. They say that to acknowledge these things is to give in to people trying to manipulate our fears.
Some things should be feared. Our enemy’s intended long-term goal will mean subjugation and oppression of every man, woman and child on the planet. You have to see these people up close to realize the hatred they have for all things Western and free. It will never go away. No amount of aid or diplomacy will ever calm them. We must destroy them utterly; and the sooner we commit to that destruction, the less American soldiers we will lose fighting pointless holding actions. The less American firemen and policemen will die trying to save victims of terror. The less American schoolchildren or businessmen will become victims.
The people who deny the nature of this fight are hobbling us. It is because of these people that no matter what the circumstances or hour of my death, I will die terrified. Afraid that I’ve not done enough to keep this fight away from my family. And afraid that despite all my efforts, some people will still manage to surrender the country to the enemy.
The holiday is to celebrate those who fall protecting our way of life. I tell you that this life is not natural. By my own eyes I affirm that the natural way of things is brutal and harsh and full of graphic, noisy death. Those who fall do so not to keep you in khakis and iPods and digital cable and horrible pop music, but to keep your life from descending back into the norm. The way it is all over the world except for America. They keep us from becoming what all of humanity used to be. They maintain our forward progress and hunt down and kill those who want us to revert to their level. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with saying damn the rest of the world, I want my family and my countrymen to be safe and happy, and I’ll pay for that with my body and soul if necessary.
The fallen. We can never be as good as them. We can never achieve their level of honor. We can only pick up their torch and continue their bloody, unhappy work. Maybe if we give enough of ourselves, they will be able to sleep, in the field where the poppies blow.
I’m sorry for getting all serious. I just hate Memorial Day. As long as there are memories, I will hate it. I go on leave in a couple days. I promise to get back to talking about video games and movies in my next dispatch.
posted by Battler03 at 11:20 PM
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