In another thread, Ex-GOPer mentions that he's (Edit & Repost)

[Jackpine Radical]

an active duty military pilot who has come to a change of heart in politics. This set me to thinking. Experiencing a war tends to get you down to issues of basic values, and liberalism is often forged in adversity. I know that I went to infantry duty in Vietnam with 4 years of college behind me and a "young fogy" conservative orientation (we didn't have the word "libertarian" in those days, but I was one anyway). What I saw and experienced in Vietnam was pretty awful. As soon as I got back into college after the army, I started getting the information I needed to understand the things I had seen in Vietnam, and I rapidly evolved into a leftist. Others also apparently went through a transformation due to the war.

Whatever torments the Gulf I vets are now suffering, they mostly fought a video-game war in which they didn't see much close-up carnage. Ditto with Kosovo.

Gulf II is the first war since Vietnam in which large numbers of American troops are having the kind of combat experiences of which post-traumatic stress disorder is born. I predict that it will also be the first war to flood the ranks of liberalism with its veterans. I think we're already starting to see this effect, with so many families beginning to protest what is happening to their sons and daughters.

Thoughts?


Edited to remove the name of a Democratic primary candidate

[Maeve]

1. Link to previous discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1120887

[Karenina]

2. The guy made my day!

Boutros-Ghali (sp?) said, "Only stupid people never change their minds."

[Timefortruth]

3. I have a friend who had been an enlisted soldier in the guard

and reserves. He is a union member and self-proclaimed conservative Democrat. He bought Chimp's lines about why we had to invade Iraq and supported the invasion, it wasn't until the WMD lies went mainstream that this friend saw the light.

His transformation has been incredible, he says the men he talks to who are coming home are all telling stories about how horrible it is. Civilians in Iraq throw bags of feces and urine on the soldiers for no reason, they feel despised, and for what, my friend asks. (He did say that in the Kurdish areas there isn't such civilian outrage, but even there it isn't like it was.)

He is where I was in late '02 and early '03. OK the invasion has nothing to do with 9/11 or OBL or WMD--then why? He is in the early phase where he attributes it to some psychological reason on the part of the Chimp like avenging his father. He is learning about PNAC and profiteering but the depth of that sort of betrayal is hard for him to get his mind around.

It's sinking in all over.

[x-g.o.p.er]

4. It wasn't the war that changed me per se...

It was the way that veteran's were and are being treated. The attempted roll back of veteran's benefits struck me as particularly galling, given the fact Bush is asking more of the military than the last three presidents combined. And the blatant, bald-faced overall hypocrisy of this administration just asses me to no end.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. So glad you found this site.

Great to have you aboard.

[x-g.o.p.er]

6. me too n/t