Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper has some experience in participating in exits from foreign conflicts, having lost friends while helping take the kinks out of Korea’s 38th parallel 70 years ago. That the parallel has stood the test of time as a barrier against the spread of totalitarianism on a foreign peninsula gives the keeper something to remember from the “Forgotten War.”
The flexing of this country’s mix of altruism and arrogance on the global scene has obviously made for a better world—think Hitler and Stalin; and knowing when “to fold ‘em” has always been a critical part of the let-us-help-you call.
The keeper remembers the seemingly endless nature of the so called “Panmunjom peace talks,” and how they went on for months while his Intelligence and Recon infantry platoon made patrols and manned observation posts to locate the “enemy”–young innocent oriental men and boys that had been sent by narcissistic fools to kill the invasive do-gooders.
Two of those killed were close pals in the keeper’s platoon. They were from Michigan, and life for them was a continuous joke, until it was ended by a direct artillery hit on an OP. The keeper thinks about them often, and obviously about how it could have been him ending up in a body bag.
Unfortunately, the big picture doesn’t seem to change much as greed, spiritual stupidity and inhumanity dominate to the point that they are destroying the physical and psychological planet.
If getting the hell out of Afghanistan saves US lives, is that worth the burden of knowing about the potential for the abuse of another country’s women and girls that might occur?
Kickass says there may never be a right time to step away from a dog fight, even when the pups are threatened, but sometimes it is best to just watch and listen.
