Never Again (?)
After the Holocaust in Europe ended in 1945, the phrase "never again" took on a special meaning. We now knew what evil could happen when people stood by and did nothing.
But as the years slipped by and the world saw it happen again
And again
I don't care whether you are a bigot that thinks those "rag heads" or Muslims can't ever stop killing each other, or a sneering political opportunist who cynically chants "no blood for oil" or "This is Bush's War, dreamed up on a ranch in Texas." You are, in effect, saying "Never again? Who cares - 'again' isn't my problem."
It is a problem to me. I have brushed up against the edges of genocide before. I am about to go do a small thing. Help train the Iraqi Army to prevent "again" - whether internally or externally caused. It is a small thing I do, but there are 160,000 others joining me. Together we can add up to "Never Again".
While I serve, while I am able to do anything about it, I say NEVER AGAIN.
posted by LTC John at 6:58 AM
20 Comments:
To you adn the 160,000 others I say thank you.
Awesome Post. Included You In Our Roundup.
I say AMEN! I hope you stay safe and on behalf of my family, thank you and all those who are in theatre, given their lives and those wounded.
sorry, pal, and with all due respiect (I have served too), Never Again applies to something other than Shi killing each other and Sunnis and Sunnis killing Shia...never again in this case means NOT getting our guys killed in a senseless sectarian mass killing spree.
Amen and thanks, again!
As someone who had family in the Nazi death camps I can only say Thank You.
@12:22: You prove my point. Pity you did, however.
My experience (albeit with Afghans and Egyptians) differs from your absolute declaration of incompatability. And I am not willing to watch an ocean of blood spilled because of such a sweeping and lazy thought pattern.
"Never Again applies to something other than Shi killing each other and Sunnis and Sunnis killing Shia"
First they came for the Shia and I did nothing...
Godspeed, and thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks for your service. And God Bless America!
Stay safe Major. You'll be in my prayers.
Thank you doesn't seem like quite enough...
If thank you were enough, I would say it a thousand times. It is not enough, but it is what I have today.
Because I have uncles on a beach in Normandy, a father who can't hear because of artillery shells and heavy equipment in Korea and Vietnam, and brothers and friends who serve with you now, I pledge to live my freedom and to teach my children: NEVER again.
God Speed, Major, and God bless your mission.
Major, it is the failure of post modernism which allows @12:22 to equate Shia and Sunni as unworthy of a peaceful existence. It is the West alone which has had the good fortune to emerge form centuries of warfare to build a civil society. We have an obligation to offer our hand to any nation which seeks a peaceful existence under a rule of law - with freedom guaranteed.
I look forward to seeing you in theater.
Oh? You have some news to relay to us then, CD?!
There were plenty of mass graves in Iraq for which the spirit of "never again" fell too late, places where the skeletons of dead children still clutched the toys they held in the moments of their executions.
I wouldn't compare 9/11 or even Pearl Harbor to the Holocaust or the Killing Fields or Iraq's childrens' cemeteries, but I do subscribe to the "broken window theory" ... and 9/11 broke a lot of windows.
Either way "never again" is over and over again except in those places where we say, "Not here. Not now. Not this time."
That is my whole point, Laika.
Never Again should mean "never". Not, "maybe" or "sometimes" or "if easy"
OPSEC at this point - awaiting a WARNORD.
What is a Garrison Engineer, anyway?
Chained to a facility and told "Make it better. Much better." ANd then given not enough money or manpower....why do you ask? :)
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