Subject: Re: Timmy's Lost It: [Was Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice]
From: Toto <[email-masked]>
To: "Timothy C. May" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 04 Jan 1997 20:48:46 -0800

Timothy C. May wrote:
> Surely you can see that WW2 was substantially different from Vietnam?

  Only in scale, and in the number of people and nations who felt 
that outside intervention in the affairs of other nations was
justified.

> However, most soldiers in WW2, on both sides, were the cannon fodder of
> politicians.

  In any war, whether 'just' or 'unjust' (or 'both'), the 'grunts' on
the
line, by very nature of their position, are cannon fodder, whether they
are their because of their ideals, or as a result of conscription.
  It is a sad fact that, even in a war where the main focus is the
fight for ideals that the common soldier is willing to sacrifice 
for, the 'powers that be' always seem to be ready, willing and able
to throw away a few 'extra' lives in order to increase the size of
their political 'cock', or to garner a few headlines.
  And when the war is over, the only thing that everyone can agree on
seems to be the 'body count'.  That's war.

Toto