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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! January 22, 2005 How many Liberals does it take to win a war?By Greyhawk
Posted by Greyhawk / January 22, 2005 9:24 AM | Permalink 17 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
It's true-History does repeat itself.
That was a really, really nice piece of work. Congrats! Keep it up!
4th Infantry, Vietnam
Wonderful! Unfortunately, all too true.
Very astutely said. Like Q: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? A: "Nobody knows, it has never been tried".
I'm glad our country can still find a few good men and women who will shoulder the burden of keeping us free.
Uh. The liberals are not totally crazy.
Some would like to end the Government Cocaine Price Support and Gang Finance Program. Did I mention it also supports terrorists?
Now you know that any price support program is socialist at heart.
Why do conservatives support it? Why are liberals against it?
Well here is one conservative who does not. It does get kind of lonely. OTOH I get called a lot of names so the effort is not totally in vain.
Fantabulous!!! Power Line and LGF need links to this.
Nice poetry.. lousy political statement. I find it interesting that the conservatives in America refuse to fight the war. I mean actually fight the war. As idiotic as it looked, Bush is up there during his inaugural address telling young people to join up while his two daughters sit there willing to do absolutely nothing.
No one has hamstrung the police or anyone. Do you know how this works? Any law that people want to challenge ultimately becomes a Constitutional issue. Remember that document? Isn't that what we are fighting for? How about the basic premise of that document that says all rights are inalienable and the Government HAS NO RIGHTS except those given to it by the populous. The populous can take them back at any time. So, are these "handcuffs" you talk about things like Meranda rights, or maybe it is the laws against unlawful search and seizure? What specifically is it you protest?
You must have been saddenned the day the Soviet Union came down. Now there was a good Government not handcuffed at all.
Outstanding poem. Couldn't agree more.
Kevin, plenty of us conservatives spent decades mouthing all your dogma. That dog don't hunt no more. Give it up -- you look stupid.
Thank you for your service, Sir.
We are fighting the same war in the sense we are fighting the MEDIA. I think I get it and while liberals take things so literaly in order to attack, I get your point. How did we create such a monster in the MSM?
Peg:
The Constitution is Dogma? It doesn't "hunt" anymore? And who looks stupid? It is funny that when the "socialist" aspect of Communism is discussed by liberals about the only thing a Conservative wing nut will say is, "Well if you like it so much, go live there".
So, I say to you, there are plenty of Countries around the world that believe the rights of the citizens being protected is "dogma". There are plenty of Countries where the police can randomly search and seize, arrest and hold without charge, and torture a la Gitmo. Peg, why don't you move to one of those Countries?
In the meantime, leave the CONSTITUTION alone. Read the Federalist Papers. Perhaps you should read the words and think about them.
Crapola! How many liberals lost their lives in World War II? As a Green Beret said on TV during Nam war: you know a war is a just war when you don't find many folks trying to keep out of it.
Kevin, lest you forget, the terrorists aren't citizens of the USA and the constitution doesn't apply to them. You've got your "rights" confused. You're the one who needs to do your homework. Mr. Vaughn's point is lost on people like you...those who want to make it harder for our own soldiers and easier for the terrorists. Your tune would be different if you were the one defending the people of this country. "Support for the troops" is more that just words.
Kevin, our citizens' rights are being protected just fine. Our safety is not, thanks to you and your ilk. As for Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, get over it. Go whine somewhere else; this is war. You people are NOT SERIOUS.
This is a wonderful poem that completely captures the mentality of the idiotic MSM. Thank goodness they don't rule the land.
conservatives lost Vietnam
Lost China
Lost Iraq OOPS not lost yet you say?
and 1300 dead Gis for WMD you say?
Conservatives didnt lose China. It happened on the watch of one of my favorite presidents — Truman. The war in Vietnam was started and escalated under Kennedy and Johnson. One should not judge these as party losses but as national losses. we all lose. Some in more ways than others.
Think of how devisive what you say is. Your statement shows more about what I think is wrong with the thinking of political hacks in this country. We are Americans. we share a commonality that is truly underestimated and in most ways misunderstood.
The true disgrace is that the same people calling most for unity and complain most about how "divided" the country is, are the ones who are committing the most divisive acts and make the most divisive statements.
When Lincoln won the civil war was it a win for the Republican party or was it a victory for the entire country?
This methodology of thinking is simply childish
"I find it interesting that the conservatives in America refuse to fight the war. I mean actually fight the war. As idiotic as it looked, Bush is up there during his inaugural address telling young people to join up while his two daughters sit there willing to do absolutely nothing."
That's one of the weakest arguments I've ever heard.
I just can just visualize it now. A private talking to a General about how pocking cowardly he is and dishonest, for advocating strategies and plans that PUT him, the private, in danger while the General sits back at the HQ.
That private is going to be fraged, that is what I visualize. In war time, any private with that kind of thoughts and stupid enough to utter them so far up the chain of command, is as good as dead. It's not like they can bust him down any, and there ain't any prisons to put him.
The reason why civilians get away with it is because they abuse free speech. They say outrageous things like, "I mean actually fight the war." These people don't even know how to fight a war and they think they are exhalted enough to decide the best use of people's lives, honor, and talents.
These people actually want an aristocracy of militant fatherprussians, with ties to both civilian heirarchy and military loyalty...
I guess none of these "people" ever heard of the Praetorian Guard.
I guess they also never heard of a military "coup de'ta" either. I'm surprised, cause that is a French word.
I find it interesting to say the least, that those who want to hold Bush more accountable is willing to give him an entire fiefdom in the military where he can acrue personal loyalty by fighting with the men and the boys, and then when he gets back to the Presidency, he can call upon those "favors" when he deems fit.
Jeez, thank god for people educated in matters of the Balance of Powers and Constitutional limits of the military and the civilian leaders.
I wonder when these people will ask themselves this question. "How come nobody in the military who isn't retired, has tried to run for President".