OT If you are or have been in the Military- what do you think about the withdrawal from Syria?

I had a total of 3 Canadian cousins and 2 American ones. The Americans are dead. After ROTC, the younger American one did his time as an Air Force lieutenant in Alaska. The older one registered blacks in the South while in college, then was an Army lieutenant in Vietnam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Summer

From Vietnam he'd write essay letters describing it. I'd read them. Curious friendly kids watched him take showers because his unit wasn't killing them. He wrote a song about missing America which was a top-20 hit for Mark Lindsay, lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders.

"Rage exploded 'cross her face and made a militant there on the cemetery lawn."



At age 36 he died of an extremely rare brain cancer. I was his last visitor. We think it was Agent Orange or some similar chemical.

 

sorry to hear about your Yank cousins fates....my sister was a bona fide member of the Mark Lindsay fanclub….I just emailed this video to her ..she'll be thrilled. She'll love the endless stream of portraits of the guy....give her a cheap thrill in her old age and maintain her soap opera theme of life

 

If she's such a fan, she knows the song. After he left the Raiders, he put out 3 singles within 6 months that were on the radio a lot, Silver Bird, Miss America, and Arizona. Oliver Stone would have a field day with the cousin's biography, as a mixture of conservative and religious liberal. Beverly Hills kid with money, in the college student army that invaded the South (the KKK killed 3 of them; see the article) joined the Army to go to war, married a 3-star general's daughter, wrote songs released by others, cancer, wife dumps him, etc.

Damn. I just realized why he's on my subconscious mind this morning. It was 40 years ago this month he died. Was this the day I visited him. No, that was around Jan. 10 8 and he died around the 20th. I was on a Greyhound trip around the country alone. I know I was in NYC starting the 12th or 13th because on the TV news in my hotel room they said that the Hillside Strangler had been arrested in Bellingham and I was shocked that I was hearing the name Bellingham in the Big Apple. So it was about Jan. 8, not today. He's sending me a late message. He probably forgot, like me.

 

Yeah, I lost some. Hate to be reminded. Once in a while, maybe once a year, I break down. Did it once in front of a VA counselor. She told me I had PTSD. Shocked me to hear that.
Gotta get off that subject.

 

I can't recall brain cancer being on the list of related medical issues associated with Agent Orange.
I had the honor of being stationed in the area where the most Agent Orange was sprayed.

 

I think her first 45's were Kicks and Hungry...before he had that Cherokee People song that was a big hit

 

Nobody catches a super-rare form of brain cancer in his early 30s. This form hits something like 1 in 5 million people. Very strange.

 

Here are the details of how everyone around Trump wants eternal war. Good for Trump to oppose the warmongers.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/21/james-mattis-resignation-trump-erdogan-phone-call

Mad Dog was already scheduled to retire, so he grandstanded and quit 2 months early.

 

He hated being called "Mad Dog".
Sure it was grandstanding. He wanted to make a point.
White House staff don't have to retire at any particular age.

 

We should really stage our stupid wars closer to home. All that fuel used is bad for the environment.

 

This sounds like a problem for our well armed ninja teachers to solve...but people will still make stupid babies

 

True.