My Rooney thoughts for November 11, 2014

Today, one hundred years ago, at the exact time of 1100hrs the Great War came to an end. It was thought to be a war that would end all wars.  It was a war in which men learned to use machines of destruction, to kill almost a whole generation of young men. It was only thought to be the war that would end all wars.  Simply put, it did not.

I think of that war from time to time.  I can’t begin to contemplate the ugliness of that war.  What those men must have experienced.  What they must have endured in the trenches, on the field of battle with its horrifying sounds, the smell of battle, or the horrific scenes of watching a fellow soldier be decomposed into a bloody mass of rot. How many great minds did the world lose, how many medical advances were lost, how many great artists were obliterated? Did the world learn anything from this massive destruction?  Simply put, it did not.

Again, in the 1930s, the world again was to be challenged by the forces of evil.  Nazism was to spread over the world like a cancer.  Men in high places couldn’t agree on how to stop this menace.  Once again men throughout the world were confronted with terror and destruction. Once again, the flowers of nations were put to the test.  Once again, the world lost millions of good folks. Once again, one has to ask how many great advances were lost. Once again, one has to ask if the world learned anything from this terrible war that ushered in the nuclear age.  Simply put, it did not.

Then came Korea, then, came my war, Vietnam.  In the early 1960s, when I was shipped overseas, the war wasn’t popular, nor did people really understand what we were doing. But, I was a lucky one.  I didn’t have to participate in the horrendous, unspeakable firefights, but I experienced things that still bother me enough that I won’t buy a KIA car.  And, once again, I wonder how many great minds were lost on those killing fields.   Once again, has the world learned anything from these terrible wars? Simply put, it did not.  

And, now we’re mired in the Middle East.  Our President says we will not have “boots on the ground.”  Funny, I hear more boots on the ground in the Middle East this month than I did last month.  I see a bunch of our soldiers in the valleys of death.  What I don’t see is a lot of support from our so-called allies.  Where are they?  What are they doing to help?  Has the world still not learned its lesson about war?  Simply put, No.

On this day, Veteran’s Day, know that all soldiers foreign and domestic need to be remembered, forever!