OFF: Starship Troopers (was Classic Rock)

[Ted Jackson jr. 6L6]

> From:          "J. Michael Looney" <mlooney at IONET.NET>
>
> Part of that was that RAH was a naval officer between WWI and WWII, Haldeman
> was a grunt in Viet Nam.  Lets just say that their view of the military came
> from a different angle. RAH would have died at Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941 had
> he not been given a medical discharge in late 1940.  He was the gunnery
> officer on the USS Oklahoma.  His replacement died at his battle station.
> RAH was from a generation that the Civil/military leaders, for lack of a
> better term, had their shit together most of the time and that they war that

No! No! No!  Examine the presidents just before FDR:  Hoover, Harding
Coolidge...No more need be said.  The military?  If their shit was so
together, how'd they get caught with their pants down at Pearl
Harbor?  Oh yeah, FDR knew about it, but wanted war, so he LET Japan
wipe out half our navy on purpose...Or so the legend goes...

> they were fighting was for clear and good reasons.  The American leadership

Public opinion was so against American entry into the European war
that FDR had to beg and wheedle Congress like mad to let us donate
some obsolescent ships to help the Brits.  As for Japan, if the US
hadn't put such a stranglehold on the oil resources of the Pacific
rim [and many other natural resources as well] the Japanese may never
have been driven to the desperation of war.  FDR knew he could never
have gotten Congress to declare war on Germany[before Pearl], that's
why he never asked them--he'd have been laughed out of office...

> in the mid 60's to early 70's can not be said to having had their shit
> together, and the reasons for fighting in Viet Nam, plus the ways and means

Most of the political and military leaders in the 60s and 70s were
WWII veterans:  Johnson, Nixon, Kennedy, Westmoreland...




theo

...................................
"I told you not to be stupid..."
--Ben S.