As my father is in the marine corp. and in high school i had history and consumer economics.(same teacher if you asked him about history he would not speak about consumer economics for an hour and a half.) since ive been able to read pretty much ive read alot of books on the wars and watched most of the documentaries on them as well. so i wanted to get a topic going on war and related topics. feel free to discuss wars or the iraqi war here. here's something interesting i found today on world war 2.
America calls its soldiers who fought in World War II "the greatest generation."
They are hymned by Hollywood, celebrated by publishers and politicians, hailed at every turn.
And for their troubled descendants, whose military misadventures stretch from My Lai to Abu Ghraib, the clean-limbed victors of the "last good war" do indeed shine out like heroes from a lost golden age.
Yet despite the vast tonnage of celluloid and printer's ink devoted to their praise, what is perhaps the truest, highest measure of their worth has been almost universally neglected.
And what is this hidden glory, which does more honor to the people of the United States than every single military action ordered by their corruption-riddled leaders during the past 50 years?
It's the fact that in the midst of history's most vicious, all-devouring, inhuman war, only about 15 percent of U.S. soldiers on the battlefield actually tried to kill anyone.
In-depth studies by the U.S. Army after the war showed that between 80 percent and 85 percent of the greatest generation never fired their weapons at an exposed enemy in combat, military psychologist Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman reports in Christianity Today.
Many times they had the chance, but could not bring themselves to do it.
They either withheld their fire altogether or else shot into the air, to the side, anywhere but at the fellow human beings — their blood kin in biology, mind and mortality — facing them across the line.
Subject: war related 
Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:35 pm
