Friday, October 10, 2003
Yankee Doodley Doo
There is a great line in the movie "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy." So great, even an old antiwar person like me can appreciate it. Roughly remembered, George M. Cohan was quoted by James Cagney: "If we're in it, then we're behind it. Let's get behind the kid with the gun." It's a real flag-waving, bugle-blowing wake-up call.
If you didn't live through Vietnam, it was a war that was never officially declared, never officially supported, and never officially won, so it must have been lost. The kids sent over there to fight in the swamps and jungles were not even allowed to vote (unless they somehow lived long enough to turn 21). They were given faulty weapons, little moral support from the government, and very little sympathy from the Vets who were still wallowing in their own self-glory from winning WWII. Those kids took the brunt of a lot of angry antiwar liberals who sought to end the war by convincing soldiers to put down their guns and run (to Canada) or to stand up and be counted by going to jail. There were probably 100 really great (Really Great) antiwar songs to the one (only one) decent pro-war song from the Vietnam era. And there were a lot of great lines in those antiwar songs, too.
But it was all rhetoric. Speeches, Songs, Poetry, and Films. Sometimes we forget that.
Lost in all the hype were the soldiers. For better or for worse, for Right or for Left, once those kids were sent to a foreign country to fight for whatever reason, we all needed to be behind them. And it didn't matter if the war was to help commerce or help a people, it was our duty to stand behind our American Soldiers. We should have sent the supplies and equipment and the support our soldiers needed to win that war. If we were not willing to do that, we should have brought them home. Instead, we just kept them there with the barest of necessities, year after year, replacing the soldiers with newer and younger draftees. Can we learn from our history? We are fighting another war. Again, not here, not on American soil. But "over there."
We have another chance to do what is right. Let's pay attention this time. Who cares who wins the World Series or the Stanley Cup or the Super Bowl? We have nightly reports on the news; let's follow the war stats for a change. Let's know who is winning what battles and how the kids are doing.
This time, for as long as there are American Soldiers in a foreign land, our politicians need to insure those kids have everything needed to win. When it comes to soldiers, the politicians need to be Americans first, and pollsters last. This is not a debate. This is not up for discussion. The soldiers are already over there. We are in the war whether they "declared" it or not, voted for it or not, wanted it or not.
George M. Cohan also said "we're coming over and we won’t come back 'till it's over over there," and "just as some tyrant starts flexing his muscles we all look up to make sure that grand ol' flag of ours is still waving o'er our heads," and, "today, we're all soldiers, we're all on the front."
Ooo-wee, I could sit and quote that movie all day.
There is a great line in the movie "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy." So great, even an old antiwar person like me can appreciate it. Roughly remembered, George M. Cohan was quoted by James Cagney: "If we're in it, then we're behind it. Let's get behind the kid with the gun." It's a real flag-waving, bugle-blowing wake-up call.
If you didn't live through Vietnam, it was a war that was never officially declared, never officially supported, and never officially won, so it must have been lost. The kids sent over there to fight in the swamps and jungles were not even allowed to vote (unless they somehow lived long enough to turn 21). They were given faulty weapons, little moral support from the government, and very little sympathy from the Vets who were still wallowing in their own self-glory from winning WWII. Those kids took the brunt of a lot of angry antiwar liberals who sought to end the war by convincing soldiers to put down their guns and run (to Canada) or to stand up and be counted by going to jail. There were probably 100 really great (Really Great) antiwar songs to the one (only one) decent pro-war song from the Vietnam era. And there were a lot of great lines in those antiwar songs, too.
But it was all rhetoric. Speeches, Songs, Poetry, and Films. Sometimes we forget that.
Lost in all the hype were the soldiers. For better or for worse, for Right or for Left, once those kids were sent to a foreign country to fight for whatever reason, we all needed to be behind them. And it didn't matter if the war was to help commerce or help a people, it was our duty to stand behind our American Soldiers. We should have sent the supplies and equipment and the support our soldiers needed to win that war. If we were not willing to do that, we should have brought them home. Instead, we just kept them there with the barest of necessities, year after year, replacing the soldiers with newer and younger draftees. Can we learn from our history? We are fighting another war. Again, not here, not on American soil. But "over there."
We have another chance to do what is right. Let's pay attention this time. Who cares who wins the World Series or the Stanley Cup or the Super Bowl? We have nightly reports on the news; let's follow the war stats for a change. Let's know who is winning what battles and how the kids are doing.
This time, for as long as there are American Soldiers in a foreign land, our politicians need to insure those kids have everything needed to win. When it comes to soldiers, the politicians need to be Americans first, and pollsters last. This is not a debate. This is not up for discussion. The soldiers are already over there. We are in the war whether they "declared" it or not, voted for it or not, wanted it or not.
George M. Cohan also said "we're coming over and we won’t come back 'till it's over over there," and "just as some tyrant starts flexing his muscles we all look up to make sure that grand ol' flag of ours is still waving o'er our heads," and, "today, we're all soldiers, we're all on the front."
Ooo-wee, I could sit and quote that movie all day.
