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(82,333 posts) Mon May 30, 2016, 11:04 AM May 2016

We Are Now, As Ever, At War With Eastasia. Happy Memorial Day From Yr Wonkette.

We originally ran this post for Memorial Day 2015. It’s a lovely read, so we decided it should be reposted this year.

By Dan Weber - May 30, 2016 - 10:30am

The Washington Post has pulled together a sobering chart that allows readers to determine what percentage of their lives the United States has been at war. It’s worth a look — I was born in 1983, so as long as the Global War on Terror continues for a couple more years, I’ll get past the 50% mark before I turn 40.

On September 11, 2001, I was an 18-year-old with no disqualifying injuries and a vague appreciation for the kind of manpower necessary to conduct land wars in Asia. In Minnesota, where I grew up, the easiest way to escape the draft was via canoe, through Lake of the Woods and on to Ontario — or, at least, that’s what my dad’s plan had been if his number had been called in Vietnam (as it turned out, he was too young and had a good number). Watching the devastation in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, I thought there had to be a draft coming. My country would never be so irresponsible as to attempt expeditionary land war in Asia with an all-volunteer force.

*****

Of course, we didn’t begin a draft, and we did not declare war, keeping alive a streak that started in 1941 and survived Korea, Vietnam, and two encounters with Saddam Hussein. I went off to college, where I spent most of my time writing (bad) comedy and arguing about the wars in which I would not participate. Given what we know about who serves in America’s all-volunteer military, my experience was more typical than not.

Some of my classmates, however, did go into the military. One went to West Point, where he studied medicine. A friend who was not the best student entered the Marine Corps. To this day, he claims that the Corps gave him the structure and the discipline he needed to turn his life around. The bonds he formed with his brothers, he says, are unbreakable.

http://wonkette.com/602356/we-are-now-as-ever-at-war-with-eastasia-happy-memorial-day-from-yr-wonkette-2#P8koxKQXiGHqPVY8.99

Here’s how much of your life the United States has been at war

By Philip Bump May 25, 2015