East is East, and West is West
Oh, East is East, and West is West,
and never the twain shall meet
Till Earth and Sky stand presently
at God's great Judgment Seat
--The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling
________
and never the twain shall meet
Till Earth and Sky stand presently
at God's great Judgment Seat
--The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling
________
Peggy Noonan wrote a fuzzy, feel-good piece on fighting men this weekend, but her conclusion is pie in the sky (To Old Times.)
The hub of the piece is her experience in 1991 in Normandy when, following an unexpected hot air balloon landing in an old farmer's field, she and her party were toasted by the old man who brought out an old bottle of Calvados he had waiting for just such an occasion. He said he had not seen Americans since the Invasion, and was toasting "To old times."
She rightly muses about the "kindness and generosity" demonstrated by American troops, and contrasts that with a Red Army statue in Vienna, which had the local nickname of "The Unknown Rapist." She chalks the bad behavior of the Russian soldiers to being born into a world of communism and atheism, among other nasty influences.
In her pollyannaish conclusion, she "hope(s) some day they [our soldiers] get some earned tenderness, and wind up over the hills of Iraq, and land, and an old guy comes out and says, "Are you an American?" And they say yes and he says, "A toast, to old times."
But perhaps, he'll go back into his abode, tote out an AK, and say, "This is for what you did to my cousin/mother/brother/wife." I would not want to make a bet on that one.
Like Jakes Barnes said, it's pretty to think so. If your own country doesn't thank you (Noonan admits the "soldiers are used to being used"), perhaps the other side will. However, the glaring fault of her analogy is that we are not fighting for the Iraqis, but rather, against them.
I seriously doubt a bottle of Calvados is in the offing.
--Lisa
The hub of the piece is her experience in 1991 in Normandy when, following an unexpected hot air balloon landing in an old farmer's field, she and her party were toasted by the old man who brought out an old bottle of Calvados he had waiting for just such an occasion. He said he had not seen Americans since the Invasion, and was toasting "To old times."
She rightly muses about the "kindness and generosity" demonstrated by American troops, and contrasts that with a Red Army statue in Vienna, which had the local nickname of "The Unknown Rapist." She chalks the bad behavior of the Russian soldiers to being born into a world of communism and atheism, among other nasty influences.
In her pollyannaish conclusion, she "hope(s) some day they [our soldiers] get some earned tenderness, and wind up over the hills of Iraq, and land, and an old guy comes out and says, "Are you an American?" And they say yes and he says, "A toast, to old times."
But perhaps, he'll go back into his abode, tote out an AK, and say, "This is for what you did to my cousin/mother/brother/wife." I would not want to make a bet on that one.
Like Jakes Barnes said, it's pretty to think so. If your own country doesn't thank you (Noonan admits the "soldiers are used to being used"), perhaps the other side will. However, the glaring fault of her analogy is that we are not fighting for the Iraqis, but rather, against them.
I seriously doubt a bottle of Calvados is in the offing.
--Lisa
Labels: east is east, noonan, to old times
posted by rangeragainstwar at 8:28 AM
4 Comments:
After reading any Peggers Noonan work, a nice toast with a bottle of hemlock is prescribed.
To old times.
You are a dark lad, Lurch, but in this case, I believe warranted.
Hemlock-spiked keffir will be the beverage on tap for a while, methinks.
"He honored us because we were related to, were the sons and daughters of, the men of the Normandy Invasion. The men who had fought their way through France hedgerow by hedgerow, who'd jumped from planes in the dark and climbed the cliffs and given France back to the French. He thought we were of their sort. And he knew they were good. He'd seen them, when he was young."
Good thing for Noonan the farmer didn't know who she was, the political positions she held, and the chickenhawk nature of her mentors and fellow travelers. Not only would she not have gotten the drink, she might have gotten to go surfing in those cold waters off Normandy beach.
And we would have been spared another 16 years of her inane babbling.
Gotta hand it to them, though. These people are really good at pretending to be somehow related to Americans who actually try to do something good for their fellow man. Not only did they fish this old guy, they've managed to do it with an entire nation.
Publius. Thanks for the memories. I'd completely forgotten the infy.m useage of the word FISH. It was in common use in 60s Army in Germany. This word says ity all . Ranger Jim
Post a Comment
<< Home