dispatches from the new world of work

Speaking My Mind

As a Rumsfeld supporter, I Blogged a couple of days ago that the machine-signing bit has led me to say, "Enough." Most agreed. Some didn't.

I love dissent, this topic included. In fact, I live for dissent. But that does not preclude me from responding. I'll bet my last Christmas present that those who think the machine-signing story is a tempest in a teapot either (1) never were on active duty in the Military or (2) surely were never in Combat. As I said above in an entirely different context, I was in I Corps Vietnam for two Christmases. And if I'd run over a mine and been sent home in a body bag ... I'd have been appalled in the Afterlife if then SecDef McNamara had sent my parents a machine-signed letter. No letter is fine! A Fake letter is the Ultimate Profanity! (Hey, I drafted a couple of my Commanding Officer's letters to families—which he tore up and made ever so deeply personal. My CO was a busy guy, and I observed him spending days on those handwritten missives.)

I think it was Napoleon who instituted the idea, a central tenet to this day, that one risks lives to retrieve the dead bodies of one's valorous mates. We sailors & soldiers expect no less. Honoring those who have fallen is arguably the most important contributor to the morale & integrity of a fighting force. It tells the living, "When my number is up, I will have been seen to have mattered." Shame on Rumsfeld! (That's all I'll say.) (And, hey, this is an apt part of a Christmas message—after all, religion is ultimately about the sanctity of the human spirit.)

Merry Christmas!

Tom Peters posted this on 12/24/04.

Comments

Amen Tom, This so-called (but unnecessary) invasion/occupation of Iraq, backed up by the lies of the cold war era-loving administration is the ultimate insult to the bible thumping 'christians' that returned the war monger in chief to office.

Posted by Eric Lapp at December 24, 2004 3:57 PM

You are right, Tom. And, you have shown that you are speaking your mind from conviction about the letters and not from pure Democrat/Republican dividing lines.

Posted by David at December 26, 2004 3:54 PM

Iâ€™ve learned by nowâ€”with each crisis-of-the-momentâ€”to withhold judgment until the farmer, professor of classics and military history and author Victor Davis Hanson weighs in on the subject. He did just that recently regarding the Rumsfeld flap and once again I find (as always seems to be the case) that nothing more can or needs to be said.

http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson122304.html

Posted by Doug at December 28, 2004 4:44 PM

Please hang in there for Donald.

And when Donald Rumsfeld was finished - the U.S. military was rebuilt, free were 100 million from tyranny, al Qaeda decimated to rat hole status, 2 wars suddenly won, free enterprise/freedoms spread in the decadent mid-east ...

... a 21st century peace keeping force created, 50,000 military troops added to avoid a draft, impotence of multiple STD bin laden revealed [3/4 of like ilk dead/imprisoned], no terror strikes in the USA.

Naturally though, low-IQ, fat-lazy european/islam girlie-men, anti-USA voices are heard.

Posted by Sean at December 29, 2004 7:59 AM