Plus ca Change
I caught Shrub doing his contritional shuck and jive at Walter Reed today. I also caught comments from the official punditry, and also from a couple real live veterans' advocates.
Guess who's missing, as usual?
It rather seems that our good and beneficent government is gearing up to palliate 60 years of guilt by showering services on the tens of thousands of very deserving wounded of the current conflict and, perhaps, those of the Gulf War. As it easier to buy yellow ribbon magnets for suburban SUVs than to care for any veteran, so it is easier to do everything possible for today's tens of thousands. It is easier than keeping the same promises to the hundreds of thousands of equally deserving veterans of Korea and Vietnam.
Coming home today, I followed for a while a car with a bumper sticker reading "The Korean War: the forgotten war." Well yes, by most people. Not by me, for a number of complicated reasons.
Today, Korean War veterans are in their 70s, mostly, and still forgotten. Not on purpose, mind you. It's just that Americans today generally can't remember anything past the last TV news cycle. Vietnam veterans, in their 50s and 60s, are not so much forgotten as ignored, like the disturbing relative you wish would go away but won't. Korea veterans, I salute you. Now, move over: there's another detachment joining the Legion of the Lost.
I have just turned 60. Parse it as you will, there is not much time left. It would be nice to check out knowing that someone gave a damn about us.
Guess who's missing, as usual?
It rather seems that our good and beneficent government is gearing up to palliate 60 years of guilt by showering services on the tens of thousands of very deserving wounded of the current conflict and, perhaps, those of the Gulf War. As it easier to buy yellow ribbon magnets for suburban SUVs than to care for any veteran, so it is easier to do everything possible for today's tens of thousands. It is easier than keeping the same promises to the hundreds of thousands of equally deserving veterans of Korea and Vietnam.
Coming home today, I followed for a while a car with a bumper sticker reading "The Korean War: the forgotten war." Well yes, by most people. Not by me, for a number of complicated reasons.
Today, Korean War veterans are in their 70s, mostly, and still forgotten. Not on purpose, mind you. It's just that Americans today generally can't remember anything past the last TV news cycle. Vietnam veterans, in their 50s and 60s, are not so much forgotten as ignored, like the disturbing relative you wish would go away but won't. Korea veterans, I salute you. Now, move over: there's another detachment joining the Legion of the Lost.
I have just turned 60. Parse it as you will, there is not much time left. It would be nice to check out knowing that someone gave a damn about us.
posted by Uncle | 23:44
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