Am watching the extremely intense documentary about the Korean War called Fire & Ice. America got its ass kicked mostly through its own fault – initially rushing in without being prepared, and having sloppy strategy which often left advancing troops wide open to being picked off by enemy troops in the hills.
One problem seemed to be that people weren’t thinking outside of the box. If your only path forward to advance is along a winding, mountainous road surrounded by hills, it would seem kind of clear that you would have to have troops up on those hills, advancing alongside the equipment and troops coming up the road, to protect against ambush.
One notable commander was Major General O.P. Smith who, even though he had been ordered to advance into potentially dangerous territory as fast as he could, deliberately went slow and protected his troops. He did this apparently to the point of insubordination. But it turned out that he was right – there were 180,000 Chinese troops waiting to attack them ahead – something totally missed by CIA intel.
Fire & Ice is not easy for me to watch. Most war documentaries aren’t easy to watch. Its not so much entertainment as being informed about things in the past – many of which were extremely horrible things. But, in watching this documentary I am so extremely moved by so many of these men telling their stories, people who truly are heroes and committed to our country.
And this really makes me think about the America of right now. Because where are the men like that? Aren’t younger people now only concerned with self-gratification, with partying and making a lot of money? Do people even care about our country like that any more? Are our best and brightest the kind of people who are willing to study and dedicate themselves to military science or are they the type of people who would be ready to sell out or rip off their brothers and sisters for the sake of profit?
What kind of country is America anymore? I seriously question whether a country where its people are not motivated by love of their country and of their fellow man has any kind of future. And I can say that I’ve seen what seems like the worst of it. So many spoiled, gross, greedy brats with petty views of the world. It seems like the time of greatness has ended and we are in this sick world of perpetual conflict caused by grave folly and incessant greed.
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