We Are Soldiers Still - Excerpt - Col Hal Moore & Joe Galloway

[RamboLiberal]

NEW YORK Two weeks ago, E&P reported that the long-awaited sequel to "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young" was about to be published. The book, by legendary war reporter Joseph L. Galloway and Lt. Gen Harold Moore (Ret.), is now here, and it is titled, "We Are Soldiers Still." An excerpt appears below.

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Contrary to the conventional wisdom, there’s no one more cautious and conservative when it comes to starting a war than old soldiers and old generals who have spent a career, indeed a lifetime, fighting and commanding in wars and suffering the consequences. In the words of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: “There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword.”

The two of us are, by virtue of our ages, creatures of the last half of the 20th Century and the early years of the 21st and have felt in full the weight of that old Confucian curse “May you live in interesting times.” Our professions—mine as a career Infantry officer and Joe’s as a foreign and war correspondent—have ensured that we have more than a passing familiarity with the wars and upheavals that have ensued.

Neither of us is a pacifist; neither a jingoist or a war lover. Most wars are cruel and costly mistakes whose causes are rooted in the failure of diplomacy and poor judgment in national leaders. It is far easier to get into a war than it ever is to get out of one. The outcome is seldom what those who championed a war, any war, envisioned when first the bands began to play and soldiers began to march. No one at the time reckons that war will consume billions or even trillions of dollars that might have been better spent on the real needs of a nation and people. Few foresee the crowding of military cemeteries and military hospitals that are the inevitable consequence of war, along with grief-stricken families who have lost a beloved young man or woman and lives not yet lived.

War is absolutely the last card any national leader should play, and only when every other alternative has been exhausted. If the hand was being played by an old soldier, a war veteran, I can assure you he would guard that war card to the bitter end and play it reluctantly and with the fear and trepidation of experience.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003840680