December 22, 2009

 Source

It was 30 years ago that the Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan in order to quell the Islamic opposition to the Communist governments in the area. They stayed in until February 1988. An estimated 1 million Afghans were killed compared to 15,000 Soviet soldiers, according to reports. Is it odd that the United States, who spent so much money to fund the rebels, never seemed to learn? How long have we been mired in the Middle East?

November 4, 2009

To remind people that Veteran's Day is approaching, Metropolitan State College of Denver got a visit from the American Veteran's Traveling Tribute. A smaller replica of the Vietnam Memorial, they also have replica's of the dogtags for soldiers killed since 1980 in the Middle East and a tribute to the soldiers of the Korean War. It made me think about a line from the book "Use of Weapons" by Iain Banks:

"There has seldom if ever a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this simple fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots."