NP - The making of a hawk

[Paul Mackin]

Toby G Levy wrote:

> Barbara wrote:
> > I'd be interested to know how some of our Vietnam vets feel about it.
>
> Well, I didn't think too much of Talbot's personal statements, although
> his article was fascinating and it made me want to find Walter Russell
> Mead's book and perhaps read it.
>
> I was a Vietnam war protestor in college, but directly opposite to
> Talbot, I felt that if my draft number came up, I would definitely go
> into the Army.  And my number was 33.  I remember listening to the
> lottery on the radio like it was yesterday.  I dropped out of college at
> the end of the semester and waited for the "Greeting" from Uncle Sam to
> arrive.  My feeling then as it is now is that I had an OBLIGATION to
> serve when called upon.  If I was to live in the country and reap the
> benefits of my citizenship, then I should answer the call.  I thought
> that if I wriggled out of it, some other poor soul would go in my place
> and anything that happened to him would be my fault.
>
> And as a citizen I feel it is my right to criticize the government's
> decision to send troops.  I am most definitely a Jeffersonian as
> described in Talbot's article. As with others on this list, I feel that
> the jury is still out on whether the lot of Afghanistan has been improved
> all that much by our actions, and only time will tell if we did anything
> at all to stop or even slow the development of worldwide terrorism.
>

What's Peter think? Doug, of course, is on holiday.