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Well, today is VE day, right? No, that was in May. VJ day... no, that was in August. Right, it must be Armistice Day. In any case, we thank the people who fought and lived, crass as it may seem to say that, for their work.

I'm all for a bit of levity, but if you'd spent days and nights out dispensing tea and sympathy to the guys on the C-140's that came into Anchorage every 15 minutes aroud the clock in the late 60's/early 70's carrying the wounded and the dead (no tea, and not much national sympathy, for them...) or had been working with the walking, psychically wounded ever since, there might seem less cause. We're just about to see the same thing from this war, although the administration is doing its damnest to prevent that. You don't send kids out to be killed, maimed, or become killers themselves, especially of women and children, without permanent "collateral damage" to them, and we 'll begin to see it as soon as they emerge from our shamefully underfunded Veterans' Hospitals. I was one those who passionately despised that war, but never blamed the poor grunts fighting it... It continually amazes me that we've committed the same insanity twice in the same generation; I know history is doomed to repeat itself when it can't be recalled (especially by those privileged to remain isolated from it), but in 30 years?...especially when we were almost adults? sometimes I despair of the species...
I aaalso realize that for many of you here, Viet Nam is ancient history ...)