Talking, But Not Necessarily Thinking, Wounded
Interesting Excerpts from
Talking Wounded
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 10, 2005; C01
Terry Rodgers, who just turned 21, grew up in Rockville, son of a carpenter and a courthouse clerk. After graduating from Richard Montgomery High School in 2002, he worked as a mechanic in a Washington gas station, then joined the Army.
"It was something I always wanted to do," he says. "I thought it looked fun. I just wanted to get out on my own for a while. I got kind of bored being around here. I wanted to try something new."
"I don't want anything to do with him," he explains. "My belief is that his ego is getting people killed and mutilated for no reason -- just his ego and his reputation. If we really wanted to, we could pull out of Iraq. Maybe not completely but enough that we wouldn't be losing people -- at least not at this rate. So I think he himself is responsible for quite a few American deaths."
By the end of the year, he'll be out of the Army -- "medically retired" -- and he's happy about that: "I did my tour. I had my fun. Time to move on with my life."
He wants to go to school -- the Veterans Administration will pay for it, he says -- but he's not sure what he wants to study. "I've got a few ideas, but I don't know what I want to do yet."
Talking Wounded
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 10, 2005; C01
Terry Rodgers, who just turned 21, grew up in Rockville, son of a carpenter and a courthouse clerk. After graduating from Richard Montgomery High School in 2002, he worked as a mechanic in a Washington gas station, then joined the Army.
"It was something I always wanted to do," he says. "I thought it looked fun. I just wanted to get out on my own for a while. I got kind of bored being around here. I wanted to try something new."
"I don't want anything to do with him," he explains. "My belief is that his ego is getting people killed and mutilated for no reason -- just his ego and his reputation. If we really wanted to, we could pull out of Iraq. Maybe not completely but enough that we wouldn't be losing people -- at least not at this rate. So I think he himself is responsible for quite a few American deaths."
By the end of the year, he'll be out of the Army -- "medically retired" -- and he's happy about that: "I did my tour. I had my fun. Time to move on with my life."
He wants to go to school -- the Veterans Administration will pay for it, he says -- but he's not sure what he wants to study. "I've got a few ideas, but I don't know what I want to do yet."
posted by BigBubba at 9:09 AM
![[Link to THOMAS Home Page]](http://thomas.loc.gov/images/link.gif)
20 Comments:
I certainly have some comments on this, but, first off to see Bubbette for lunch.
Note to Editor of the Pinko Post... Is the bitterness of a wounded war veteran really news? Sounds like the story belongs with the rest of the "olds".
-FJ
I hear that in an effort to boost sagging ticket revenues, they're going to change the title of the new movie "The Aristocrats" to the "The Progressive Democrats" and then splice in prominent Republican's delivering the punchlines.
I suspect that the original movie pretty much sums up "the modernist movement" in the arts and culture.
-FJ
The PG version of the Aristocrats movie… (repeated 1,000 times a la "Goundhog Day")... only it's a contest to see who can do the most vulgar rendition...
"A man walks into a talent agent's office and says, "I've got an act that you're gonna love!" The agent says, "OK, what's the act?" The man says, "Well, it's a family act. First I come out, drop my pants, and begin farting the national anthem. Then my wife comes onstage and accompanies me on the belch. Then our little son and daughter come out and urinate on the audience." The talent agent says, "My goodness! What do you call it?" And the man says, PUNCHLINE..."The Aristocrats!""
Some reviews…
1
2
The movie concept represents the "pinnacle" of Modern/Post-Modern performance art.
-FJ
WARNING! The following link is rated NC-17 and will take you to an "example" of the Progressive Left's most sophisticated improvement upon "high comedy". Aristophanes, they have snatched your "Palm" by throwing dates and nuts into the audience...
Southpark Rendition of The Aristocrats Joke
-FJ
mr. ducky,
"...General Patton was dreaming of rearming a couple of Waffen SS divisions to incorporate them into his US Third Army "and lead them against the Reds". Patton had put this plan quite seriously to General Joseph T. McNarney, deputy US military governor in Germany, who had relayed Marshall Zhukov's complaint that the Third Army was too slow in disbanding and confining German units in its Bavarian sector. "What do you think those ****** bolshies think?" said Patton. "We're going to have to fight them sooner or later. Why not now while our army is intact and we can kick the Red Army back into Russia? We can do it with my Germans..."
McNarney, petrified, reported this to his political advisor, Robert Murphy, who promptly asked Patton to come and see him. Patton was not in the least subdued. "He inquired with a gleam in his eye", Murphy later wrote, "whether there was any chance of going on to Moscow, which he said he could reach in thirty days, instead of waiting for the Russians to attack the United States." The outcome of this and other indiscretions was that Eisenhower relieved Patton of his command on October 2, 1945. Two months later he was fatally injured in a car crash. 11."
You're putting the cart before the horse again, mr. ducky. You have to learn a little "patience". The new Iraqi army isn't ready yet.
;-)
mr. ducky,
I would only suggest to you that a fight with Iran may not be a decision America will get to make. Did you hear the speech the other day by the new President of Iran? Did you see the symbology plastered in front of the speakers podium in the Iranian Congress when he made his speech?
The Iranian's aren't laughing at "The Aristocrat's" joke. They don't have your sophisticated appreciation and sense of humour (I refer again to the symbology on the speaker's podium).
In fact, they want to invite the "producers" of the afore-said "documentary" to their local sport's arena for a religious ceremony of sorts... one that involves a different sort of "sword".
-FJ
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
mr. ducky,
Let me be the first to render a "psychic" prediction regarding Kurd-Sunni friction. Seal the Syrian/Saudi/Kuwaiti borders for the present to keep the "fanatics" out, and the Shia gorilla in the room might loom large enough to force the Sunni's to make "common cause" with the Kurd's... especially after "planned" U.S. troop withdrawl's are announced and the political "situation" begins to return to the status-quo-ante.
Forces in opposition eventually tend to achieve equillibrium, for better or worse. The forces and timing required to maintain "equilibrium" and not degenerate into an "imbalance" require substantial 4-thought. Iraq might yet split into a logical "two"... or even "three" plus an "alliance". Would that make the war a "failure" in your eyes? Two small allied democratic "Republics" vs a "Theocracy"?
Methinks that all the cards have not yet been "seen" or "played" in the Middle East.
-FJ
Funny,
I regard the Kurd's in Turkey as a kind of "strategic reserve" just as I regard other "Sunni's" likewise. Anybody here ever read Xenophon's "Anabasis"? "Cyropaedia"? I'll bet you ObL did in much the same way Alexander did... a probe, a plan. But ObL is no Cyrus "unless" he's got a "secret partner" we don't know about.
But I'm not worried. Dick and Condi are on the job.
Anabasis
-FJ
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
What caught my eye about the young man's refusal to meet with Bush is the boy's desire for the fun, travel and adventure turned deadly serious. He was seriously wounded, and now he believes that he is qualified to judge the President and our foreign policy. He doesn't allow his snubbing of the President to interfere with his collecting all of his VA bennies.
He is going to receive an excellent monthly pay check and total health care for life. He needs to keep his mouth shut and be grateful for his life and for a government that continues to care for those who were seriously wounded in wartime service.
Actually, BB, I wouldn't be so hard on him. He's young.
I blame the "reporter" for making this a "story", and her "editor" for printing it. When was the last time we saw an intelligent article written from an interview with Condi or Dick Cheney, that wasn't a "selective" de-contextualized 10 second "blurb"?
But reporters can't do that. Their audience has "modern" ADD. Ever wonder why the audience ADD problem keeps getting "worse"? I don't.
-FJ
Big Bubba,
I suscribe to the Washington "Pinko" Post and read the article you're referencing here. I've seen other similar articles in the Post.
BTW, you might want to stop by my blog to see my August 11 posting. It's about "confused" fish in the Potomac.
This article reminded me of the Vietnam Era. I was a Drill Sergeant in the Modified Basic Training program at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The program was for conscientious objectors. Many of them were fine young men with sincere beliefs. Many of them were spineless bits of human offal interested not in what they could do for their country, but rather what their country could do for them. They took the position that being a medic and possibly avoiding combat was wonderful, but it would be really wonderful if they could get some technical training that would translate into serious money back in civilian life. Their motives were very transparent. The true COs rarely expressed such sentiments.
Duck, you are excused from the discussion because of your severe limitations on genteel conduct. Obviously you would not have any meaningful input to good manners and gentlemanly conduct.
I have made the statement in the past, frequently, that I was glad that I never had to salute President William Jefferson Clinton. That does not mean that I would not have done the right thing at the right time and even to shake his hand and chit chat if called on.
FJ, there has to come a time when "quotes" don't "appear" around every other "word" and you actually "claim" those words as your "own."
Sorry norm, would you prefer italics? It only takes me three times longer to encode them.
-FJ
... or would you prefer bolds?
;-)
-FJ
The difference lies in the EYE of the beholder.
(I can't very easily make the " " handsign with my fingers now, can I?)
-FJ
Post a Comment
<< Home