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It's important to realize that few people alive today know what a real war is...
Posted on 2/16/26 at 9:41 am
Posted on 2/16/26 at 9:41 am
Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Koizumi spoke at the Defense Forum in Honolulu the other day. As the attached post from X notes, he proclaimed the advent of an era of "universal politicization and militarization of everything."
I think the reason for this is the fact that the World War II generation, the last generation to know what it is like to fight a real war, are almost gone from the world of the living. The few men and women left from that era are now too old to involve themselves in the political discourse of our time.
As a result, many of us have forgotten the lessons of the first four decades of the 20th century. While we have the ability to read all about them thanks to the internet, it's one thing to read about their experiences and quite another to actually know what those experiences felt like.
As a result, the lessons those generations taught us are being thrown by the wayside. More and more you're starting to see a populace who hasn't the first clue what they are advocating for pushing ever more aggressively for armed conflict.
I don't think we're ready for what awaits on the other side of that door.
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here. I think the reason for this is the fact that the World War II generation, the last generation to know what it is like to fight a real war, are almost gone from the world of the living. The few men and women left from that era are now too old to involve themselves in the political discourse of our time.
As a result, many of us have forgotten the lessons of the first four decades of the 20th century. While we have the ability to read all about them thanks to the internet, it's one thing to read about their experiences and quite another to actually know what those experiences felt like.
As a result, the lessons those generations taught us are being thrown by the wayside. More and more you're starting to see a populace who hasn't the first clue what they are advocating for pushing ever more aggressively for armed conflict.
I don't think we're ready for what awaits on the other side of that door.
13
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:03 am to RollTide1987
quote:
the World War II generation, the last generation to know what it is like to fight a real war, are almost gone from the world of the living.
I am approaching 88 and I was only 7 years old when the war ended. There may not even be a dozen real veterans of that war still alive.
In fact, my generation is barely holding on - I'm going to my 70th High School reunion this fall and as far as I know there are only 7 of my class of 87 still alive and 3 of them are too frail to travel.
Not many left from those who had ANY personal association with it.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:04 am to RollTide1987
quote:
few people alive today know what a real war is
IDK, About 3 million people died in the Vietnam War. Lots of us remember that as a real war.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:06 am to RollTide1987
I happen to agree with him... Unfortunately we also lost with that Generation our Manners, moral compass, and common sense.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:10 am to RollTide1987
quote:
the World War II generation, the last generation to know what it is like to fight a real war, are almost gone from the world of the living.
I am approaching 88 and I was only 7 years old when the war ended. There may not even be a dozen real veterans of that war still alive.
In fact, my generation is barely holding on - I'm going to my 70th High School reunion this fall and as far as I know there are only 7 of my class of 87 still alive and 3 of them are too frail to travel.
Not many left from those who had ANY personal association with it.
++++++edit++++
quote:
More and more you're starting to see a populace who hasn't the first clue what they are advocating for pushing ever more aggressively for armed conflict.
True dat - nobody has had to undergo food rationing - travel restrictions - regular blackouts - women HAVING to work to support their war-fighter husbands. I was very young during the war so I had no real time reason to think how we lived was abnormal. But now I know why people acted the way they did then with respect to how the general population acts now.
These asshats doing all this bullshite 'protests' for 'world peace' or some such shite would get their asses whipped every time they opened their pie-hole.
They have no idea -
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:10 am to RollTide1987
In the West and Europe yes. There is a shite ton of Russians and Ukrainians who now know what war is and I would argue the worse since WWI. The drone shite is just diabolical.
This post was edited on 2/16/26 at 12:26 pm
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:19 am to ChineseBandit58
ChineseBandit58,
You are my father's age.
If you served our country as he did, please accept my sincere gratitude for your service. I also hope you have children who love you as deeply as I love mine.
You’ve lived through an extraordinary era in our nation’s history, even if I’m saddened by how our country has changed in your later years.
Still, my children—and so many young people I meet—are determined to carry forward the values your generation instilled in us. I see more and more proof of that every day.
You are my father's age.
If you served our country as he did, please accept my sincere gratitude for your service. I also hope you have children who love you as deeply as I love mine.
You’ve lived through an extraordinary era in our nation’s history, even if I’m saddened by how our country has changed in your later years.
Still, my children—and so many young people I meet—are determined to carry forward the values your generation instilled in us. I see more and more proof of that every day.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:22 am to RollTide1987
As far as real national war (and international by far and wide), then yes. This was total war and a very sobering thing to be a part of for sure.
When you read about this and were involved in Panama, Liberia, Somalia and Gulf War I, you can only regard your own service as a few skirmishes at best.
When you read about this and were involved in Panama, Liberia, Somalia and Gulf War I, you can only regard your own service as a few skirmishes at best.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:23 am to ChineseBandit58
quote:
They have no idea -
Imagine these feckless traitors in congress if we had another world war.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:24 am to ChineseBandit58
quote:
I am approaching 88 and I was only 7 years old when the war ended.
Had no idea, brother. Makes me like you even more than I already do
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:25 am to Zach
quote:
Vietnam War. Lots of us remember that as a real war.
Yep. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:29 am to Zach
quote:
About 3 million people died in the Vietnam War.
Yes and no. Real in the sense that there was a high human cost to be sure, but no one here in the United States or anywhere else in the west truly felt any of that. There was a draft but fewer than 600,000 American military personnel actually served in country at any one time, with 2.7 million personnel serving in South Vietnam over the course of the entire conflict (which lasted 15 years). For comparison, over 10 million Americans served in active combat zones in less than three and a half years of war in the 1940s.
Additionally, every person who saw major action in Vietnam are in their 70s and 80s now, so that war is starting to fade from memory as well.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:38 am to RollTide1987
It was “real” no one above 17 years old from that time didn’t know someone that didn’t come home from it.
But this is also true
But this is also true
quote:
Additionally, every person who saw major action in Vietnam are in their 70s and 80s now, so that war is starting to fade from memory as well.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:42 am to Old Sarge
quote:
It was “real” no one above 17 years old from that time didn’t know someone that didn’t come home from it.
I mean no disrespect, I'm simply saying that the Vietnam War was a regional conflict that, while it had a human cost greater than any war we have fought since the Second World War, remained localized to southeast Asia. There was no rationing, there was no mass mobilization, there was no war-time economy. It was real for those who fought the war and the family members of those left behind.
Most of the stuff we learned in history class about the conflict were the anti-war protests and draft riots.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:45 am to Zach
quote:
IDK, About 3 million people died in the Vietnam War. Lots of us remember that as a real war.
The combat was certainly real, but I think OP is referring to the importance of the implications of the war. Vietnam was a proxy war. North Vietnam gained a sliver of land, but life in America was virtually unchanged aside from the grieving families of lost soldiers. On the other hand, had the Axis powers won WWII, the world today would be a MUCH different place than the one we know today.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:58 am to RollTide1987
Yeah, my dad and uncle have told some amazing stories, of the depression, joining the service as both duty and so grandma could feed the remaining kids. Dad was a marine, and my Uncle was in the Navy, and they fought island to island in the Asian theatre. My dad passed around 85 yrs, my Uncle is still alive ( over 100) and the stories of survival, fighting island to island, finding their friends dead and tortured, dad was shot through his eye and lived with a bullet in his brain, which he always joked about only using 10% anyway, and it wasn’t in a bad spot, lol. Different generation. So many stories, that no one would even believe, so I don’t talk about them. They really never talk about them, unless there’s a weak moment that they would reflect… I can say this, we don’t want war, hope we never get to that point
Posted on 2/16/26 at 10:59 am to EasterEgg
quote:
Vietnam was a proxy war. North Vietnam gained a sliver of land, but life in America was virtually unchanged aside from the grieving families of lost soldiers.
You worded it much better than I did.
Posted on 2/16/26 at 11:07 am to RollTide1987
The Gulf War has 1.7 to 3.9 million living veterans. The Global War on Terrorism has 3 million living veterans. Are they not veterans of a real war?
Posted on 2/16/26 at 11:13 am to Zach
quote:
IDK, About 3 million people died in the Vietnam War. Lots of us remember that as a real war.
What is the age range of a Vietnam vet?
Posted on 2/16/26 at 11:17 am to Zach
quote:
IDK, About 3 million people died in the Vietnam War. Lots of us remember that as a real war.
I think you are right but I also think there’s the aspect that it’s been a long, long time since Americans in general had to make any personal sacrifices, or do without, for a greater effort.
No doubt the families of those involved in Vietnam (or later the Gulf war, etc) still know all to well first hand but for the country as a whole, we’ve been generally blessed in that respect for many, many decades.
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