Weary Nostalgia

He showed up all wet
On the rainy front step
Wearing shrapnel in his skin
And the war he saw
Lives inside him still
--I Don't Want to Wait, Paula Cole


Lucky I'm sane after all I've been through
I can't complain but sometimes I still do
Life's been good to me, so far
--Life's Been Good to Me So Far, Joe Walsh


We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression
--Confucious
_______


Another installment in Ranger's Nostalgia Weekend:

Writing an anti-war blog, Ranger is drawn to reminisce about the days when tabs and badges adorned his uniform.

Earning a Ranger tab was a purely physical feat requiring mind over matter. They didn't mind, and we didn't matter. Simply putting one boot in front of the other was a mark of success. Lack of sleep, food. . .no sweat: WETSU.

It was a game of sorts, but it was deadly serious, too. Still in training, Ranger Buddy Perry Holloway, after breaking his hip in a fall, was carried off a freezing mountain on our backs; all involved were stressed to the max. The casualties of Rangers started before we even graduated.

That was when Ranger tabs were proudly worn on our uniforms, and everything needed fit in a rucksack or hung from our bodies. The later propaganda campaign, "An Army of One," grew from this notion of solo competency born of rigorous training and single-mindedness of purpose.

Now I'm an older man, unable and unwilling to run across the street. My rucksack is in my head, and it's a heavier load than ever was carried on my back. I'm older now, and questionably more mature, but those tabs and badges still cling to my soul.

The point to my ramble is, there comes a time when intelligence trumps brute physical force. After much head-butting, one realizes there might be another, less destructive way to accomplish similar ends.

If Ranger understands this on the personal level, then why is this realization so elusive for our wise national leaders? Even those voters skeptical of GWB hoped for security with the hoary Cheney -- the voice of age, and most venal of all.

As his recently publicized tape of 1994 indicates, he knew that "taking out Saddam" wasn't worth the American lives such an undertaking might cost. For some reason, after doing a cost-benefit analysis probably involving stock portfolios vs. the health of the nation, he chose to suppress that assessment this time 'round.

Kicking ass is not a foreign policy -- it is a form of insanity. Somewhere, sometime, somehow our leaders must stop to think.

America doesn't need to be stronger -- it needs to be smarter. If an old Ranger can see this, why can't our learned leaders?