The news was speaking of the Gulf war in regard to the Iran and Iraq conflict. I hadn't thought of it in that way. I was there for operation desert shield/desert storm back in 1990. I've always felt like we finished that conflict. It was a resounding victory. Shock and Awe was the headline and indeed it was shocking. Iraqi troops were surrendering to drones! Still, the news this morning says the gulf war continues. Of course there has been no official declaration of war made by the United States, that hasn't happened since WW2. I'm thinking, by the way the news reports this gulf war, it must have begun in Biblical times. The names may have changed a few times but the geography has remained the same.
I did find that interesting as the headlines have mostly centered on Trumps "big beautiful bill" and how the democrats are forcing the reading of that bill on the Senate floor. It lasted for sixteen hours. There has been little mention of the ongoing "peace" in the middle east. I did hear a brief mention of Russia resuming an attack on the Ukraine and some cries for help. Then there was mention of a sniper killing two firefighters. All in all though very little mention of "peace" being established, however fragile. Perhaps because of this mention of the gulf war, and how I think of that as happening just a little while back, I am more aware. The gulf war isn't history to me, it is something I remember. I have pointed it out in previous blogs, history is what we remember it to be. The history we don't remember is someone else's memory. I remember us winning the gulf war.
The United States was victorious. We accomplished our stated goals with overwhelming force. The enemy was driven from the battlefield. It took us 100 hours to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. After that I remember many of us were disappointed that we didn't go into Iraq and finish the job. I still think we should have done just that, stomped on that bug while we had the chance. Well, it wasn't the first time we have failed to finish, using diplomacy as the excuse for not doing so. Should have taken care of those Russians when we had that opportunity, but that isn't my memory, that is the history I learned, my fathers memory. It is a shared memory and my uncles and others agreed with that. I also heard we stopped at the 38th parallel in Korea. I wasn't exactly certain what they were talking about but we shouldn't have stopped there is what I was told. Later on, in history class I was told a different story about that past.
Vietnam is another whole story, something I remember. I was in the service at the very tail end of that debacle. I can proclaim myself a Vietnam veteran! But, I don't feel that way about that. I wasn't on the ground in Vietnam, I was never in combat and never in any real danger from those Vietcong communists! We withdrew our troops from a battle that we knew we couldn't win. We couldn't win because we weren't allowed to fight, had to stay within the boundaries. We really only left because of political pressure. President Nixon, trick dicky they called him, withdrew our troops, instead training the south Vietnamese army to fight for itself. They even had a name for that, "Vietnamization." That was in 1973. In 1974 Nixon resigned the presidency due to the Watergate scandal. That's how I remember that, history will record several versions of all that.
Today we all hear about the war on terror. We can't define exactly who the enemy is, where they are, or what they wish to accomplish. We have established categories for them however, foreign and domestic. The founding fathers in writing the constitution just said "all enemies" when it came to that. Your enemies can be terrifying if you allow that to control your response. This war on terror is one that will never end, never have a decisive victory or a defined battle. If that were accomplished it would be WW3 and the last nation standing is the winner, then dies from radiation poisoning. Well, unless they can leave the planet. And we all know who's getting on that bus, and it won't be you! You won't even be allowed to sit in the back of that bus.
We often hear that old people are just cranky. We seniors have lost touch with reality and are so old fashioned. We have failed to embrace technology. We don't know what we're talking about. How could we know what is happening today, when we don't remember tomorrow? Things are different now. Well I'm in my seventh decade and I can say with a fair degree of certainty things haven't changed all that much. Oh we will give it a different name, offer a new explanation or excuse, proclaim our enlightenment but it isn't all that enlightened. Generally speaking it is the same old story. I want this and will do whatever is necessary to get that. I will also seek the fastest method, the easiest path, and step on you should you stumble.
The average age of our Congress people is now 59 years old. That's pretty old you know. Is that why our government hasn't been functioning quite as decisively as it did in the past? Those representatives remembering history have become more cautious, less certain of themselves? Remember it was a bunch of young hot heads that started the American revolution. The average age of the signers was 44, with a dozen being under 35. We are talking about term limits these days and most agree that is a good idea. You can't have a bunch of old people running the show, that's boring. But it has to recognized that it s always those youngsters that upset the apple cart. Young people think they know it all. They always want to change everything!
Yeah, I've heard all that over the years. I've heard the opinions, the first hand history from at least three previous generations to my own. I'm sharing mine with two generations and starting on my third. I just got a great grandchild this past January. Strangely, those generations following mine have still seen a different history than I have, even though we have been there together. History has been changing while I'm living it. I'm old, I don't like changes. Don't fix what isn't broken. If it worked for me, it will work for you. Young people, who knows what they're thinking? Well, it's more about what you remember than what actually was. Old folks just have more to remember, more to think about and consider. Nothing much really changes. The only change is in how you remember it. We won the Gulf war. That's how I remember it.