[pyro-manic]

The millions who died that we might be free - they will never be forgotten.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/history/

[Setekh]

Lest we forget.

[Sigma957]

Indeed ,amen.

[Sandwich]

Uhm, pardon, but... what?

[Nuclear1]

(Veteran's Day here in the US; Remembrance in the UK)

I tend to get a little torn up around this time of year, since I have a lot of older friends that have served in 'Nam, WWII, and even one from the USS Cole bombing.

The millions who died that we might be free - they will never be forgotten.

Amen to that.

[vyper]

Uhm, pardon, but... what?

You're kidding?

Anyway...
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

[Deepblue]

And when he gets to heaven
To Saint Peter He will tell
One more soldier reporting sir
I served my time in Hell

[Jetmech Jr.]

*moment of silence*

...

[Rictor]

It occurs to me that while eighteen year-old kids fought and died on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, starved and sacrificed, we today consider it a great injustice and challenge when gas prices rise by a few cents, or when the Internet goes out for a day. So were they supermen, to do what they did? No, just ordinary people. But they were made great by their circumstances. Circumstances which, I might add, no sane person would today defend or exalt. I can't help but feel that we've lost something, in this new world; something very basic in human nature, the wild, warlike element. We've traded in the glare of the sun on spears and sheilds for the glare of flourescent lights on white shirt collars. There's no more death and suffering, but no more heros either.

Just something to think about.

[Night Hammer]

wow...thats pretty deep man, nice

[Setekh]

Uhm, pardon, but... what?

Dude... you remember those things... the World Wars?

[Grey Wolf]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[Flipside]

They fought and died in the War for a future and people they never knew.

If they are willing to sacrifice themselves in ignorance of what the future held, we owe it to them to work every single day to make sure we remember the past, and ensure it never happens again.

Thank you for standing and fighting.

[Nuclear1]

It occurs to me that while eighteen year-old kids fought and died on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, starved and sacrificed, we today consider it a great injustice and challenge when gas prices rise by a few cents, or when the Internet goes out for a day. So were they supermen, to do what they did? No, just ordinary people. But they were made great by their circumstances. Circumstances which, I might add, no sane person would today defend or exalt. I can't help but feel that we've lost something, in this new world; something very basic in human nature, the wild, warlike element. We've traded in the glare of the sun on spears and sheilds for the glare of flourescent lights on white shirt collars. There's no more death and suffering, but no more heros either.

Just something to think about.

Wow. Good point.

Whatever happened to that kind of generation, anyway? You know, the one where kids lied about their age to get back at the Japs after Pearl Harbor, where people did their job and believed in what their country did?

Oh, wait. Television and Vietnam. American pussification by way of media.

[Grey Wolf]

We also haven't had a true call to war since WW2 either. True, there was the attack on the World Trade Center. It was not the same thing as Pearl Harbor though, not by a long shot.

[Night Hammer]

yeah no defined enemy/state

[Grey Wolf]

It's rather hard to have a concerted call to war if there is no defined enemy. Also, it wouldn't be considered "politically correct" to demonize our enemies anymore.

[StratComm]

There's another piece to that though.  It's not a matter of becoming desensitized.  Were the world to enter an all-out war now, among any nations capable of putting as many resources into the conflict as the West did into WWII, the entire human race would be royally screwed.  There would be no island hopping, no grand beachhead invasions.  The entire war would last a matter of hours - at best - and when it ended, just about everything in the northern hemisphere would be dead or dying.  The cold war, the Bomb, and the concept of M.A.D. has inalterably changed the world forever; the circumstances that allowed ordinary men to be heros is gone, and if it is ever to return, it won't happen in our lifetime.

[Grey Wolf]

Very true. To use a quote oft attributed to Einstein, "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

[Unknown Target]

Remember those that fell, and those that lived and fought.

And the reason we don't have a war like WWII or WWI anymore is because, well - any country that would stand a chance of attacked would rather take the entire world with them than to be taken over, so they'd blow up everything else. Major wars are no longer viable, because it would mean the complete destruction of both the defender and the attacker.


Anyway...looks like we'll just have to look to the past, or look elsewhere for our heroes.