{"id":34650,"date":"2013-03-20T18:53:23","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T22:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=34650"},"modified":"2013-03-20T18:54:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T22:54:39","slug":"pissing-down-my-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=34650","title":{"rendered":"Raging against the great good night"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, this week it’s popular to be against the Iraq War again. Yes, it’s the 10th anniversary of the assault on Hussein’s Iraq, so all of the bleeding hearts are out in force to explain to us why it was such a mistake. At the Washington Post<\/a>, David Ignatius calls it a “disastrous mistake”. But it was anything but that. It was inevitable as I explained earlier in the week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But you know why you went to Iraq more than these blivet-headed reporters, or at least you should. And you don’t blame Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld, or anyone else – like this Tomas Young<\/a> who writes a F*** You to President Bush. He was shot by a sniper and has had a rough time of it for the last nine years or so, well, except when Eddie Vetter was writing songs about him and he was feted by many anti-war figures.<\/p>\n

Well, in addition to blaming politicians for his maladies, he’s decided that he’s packing it in and going on a hunger strike until he expires. I understand how he feels, I really do, staring into the great maw of the future with our respective illnesses and the uncertainty that goes along with it. My disease seems to be somehow connected to my service, too, but my service was my choice, like Young. I don’t blame anyone and I accept the future that I’ve been given. And, I’ll admit that at times it crosses my mind to end it, but then, I think about the people who didn’t have that choice. The people I’ve tried to honor here above all else. I owe it to them to continue.<\/p>\n

This morning, I got an email from a dear friend’s daughter. Tim Martin died in Mogadishu and left behind three daughters and a wife. His daughter emailed me last night to thank me for the post I wrote about him years ago<\/a>. She told me that she printed it out and rereads it when she needs a bit of her father’s strength. She rereads your comments to remember what a great man her father was and the lives that he affected before he left us.<\/p>\n

So, if I never write another word on this blog, it has accomplished more than I ever expected in this one regard. And I think that’s what we should all strive for – to preserve the memory of our friends who won’t come back, who won’t have the chance to do the things that they sacrificed for us to enjoy. To preserve the memory of their deeds in life for those who won’t know what it was like to have them among us. That is our responsibility – they paid for us to assume that responsibility. Screw the David Ignatius.<\/p>\n

And to Tomas Young, I’m reminded of the poem by Dylan Thomas;<\/p>\n

Do not go gentle into that good night,
\nOld age should burn and rave at close of day;
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
\nBecause their words had forked no lightning they
\nDo not go gentle into that good night.<\/p>\n

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
\nTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
\nAnd learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
\nDo not go gentle into that good night.<\/p>\n

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
\nBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
\nCurse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
\nDo not go gentle into that good night.
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, this week it’s popular to be against the Iraq War again. Yes, it’s the 10th … Raging against the great good night<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-who-knows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}