I had my 13 year old grandson watch only the first part of "Saving Private Ryan", only because I wanted him to see what "war" is really all about. I am a Vietnam vet; a drafted, infantry soldier who lasted about three months in that God-forsaken shit hole in a war we had no business being in. That's easy to say today. In 1969, it wasn't so easy to say.
I explained to my grandson, I only wanted him to see what it is like to see bodies blown apart, men crying for their mother, death at every corner; because my friends, that's what war is.
Such a shame these young, brave men didn't have the air support we enjoyed in Vietnam. We still got our asses handed to us too often, but without the fire power advantage we had, we would have lost hundreds of thousands of men instead of tens of thousands; and most likely, the war would have ended sooner, but with much more death and destruction on our side.
Iraq was a reliving of Vietnam for me. I hold W-the-clown and his whole administration, including darth-cheney, with his hand up W's ass, responsible for the death and destruction that not only WE incurred, but the poor Iraqi civilians suffered as well. May they rot in hell, every last one of them.
One of my goals in life is to piss on darth cheney's grave one day. Such an evil, disgusting low life spawn of Satan.

No doubt it was the youngest men they sent to the shores that day.... young enough to be completely delusional at their chances. And yeah...Vietnam. You would think the lessons of that war would have lasted till past 2002. But they didn't. I was one of those people, schooled on a diet of proud war history at my father's feet, who bought into the War in Iraq. Many of us can be suckers when the war drums start to beat. Thanks for sharing your story. Keep sharing it.

But the average age was probably around 20. And they were brave. And they were very afraid. These men, 16-whatever gave their lives for future generations.

had Nixon not hijacked the Paris peace talks. And I'm sure Cheney, who was a staff member in the Nixon administration, had a hand in extending the war. That bastard probably had an active role in every military conflict from Vietnam through now.

Or we captured the film.