Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Thursday, November 22, 2012

no, I don't support the troops...

by Ross Vassilev

if you mean the American troops in Afghanistan
cuz all they're doing is
killing women and children.
if you wanna show me some troops I can support
gimme the Viet Cong fighting in the jungle
outnumbered 10 to 1
running from the enemy's choppers
and B-52's
gimme the Soviet soldier
dying by the millions in the mud of Belarus
or in the streets of Stalingrad
fighting the Nazis
Red Star shining from every cap
gimme Fidel and his band of brothers
ambushing the enemy with their machetes
in the heat of the Sierra Maestra
gimme any of them and all of them
but don't call what the G.I.'s are doing
in Afghanistan
heroism
cuz it's a fucking debasement of the word.

2 comments:

  1. Your anger is IMO misplaced, Ross. Don't spit on the troops. It's the war itself that's not heroic. And the chickenhawk draft-dodger politicians who sent them there on a fool's errand and the ticket-punching mediocre REMFs who order them into indefensible tactical situations that you should save your revulsion for...at least they're the ones who piss me off the most.

    But, hey, who cares what I think. I'm just an ex-grunt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ross,

    I have to agree with Barry on this, speaking as a veteran myself. Don't take your frustrations and hate out on the military, they are just doing what they're told to do. My brother just returned from Afghanistan and he almost lost his life there. Until you've walked in his shoes or any other soldier, it's not fair to judge them. And no, he nor I never expected people to worship us because we served our country, far from it (something you mention in another poem).

    ReplyDelete