Howdy y’all. Um, there’s a lot I could say about what I got going on today, none of which you’d care about, so I should just get to the point. Which probably means I should just delete the last sentence, and this one as well, but I know I won’t. sorry ‘bout that.
Okey doke. Where was I? Oh yeah. First Blood. That’s the ticket. I was watching some of that today, while drinking on some Myers’s Rum (highly recommended) and it got me thinking. The whole dynamic of the backlash against the Vietnam war. For those that haven’t seen or can’t remember the film, it’s the first “Rambo” movie, starring Sly Stallone, and long yet extremely simple story short, John Rambo is a Vietnam vet, an ex green beret, “best of the best,” ex POW, yadda yadda (no disrespect) and, anyway, the local constabulary mess with him as he’s wandering through some Podunk town apparently in the pacific northwest somewhere. Well, Mr. Rambo doesn’t taken to being pushed around and comes back into town despite being escorted out, and, in no small part due to the way over the top anxiety of the town sheriff, world war III in deuce minor breaks out.
Anyway, my point in all this was to, if I can remember exactly what I was going to say, make some kind of an argument vis a vis comparing the attitude of the general population toward Vietnam vets in the 70’s and what will be the attitude toward Iraq war vets in the 2000’s (or 2010’s, or, God FORBID, the 2020’s, I don’t have a LOT of confidence in the expediency of this thing ending…)
Ok, moving on, the point I was going to try & haphazardly make is that the modern day or future day general “civilian” populace is going to have a much more patient & caring attitude toward the veterans of this war then the people in the 70’s did for the boys coming back from ‘Nam. And whether this means we are “better” today, in general. I would posit “no” that we are not, but that we have “learned” from history, and therein lies the argument, is this “learning” a good thing?
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Remember, Rambo killed himself
2 - gonzo marx
it comes ot this week from the Veterans Affairs Committe that they have gotten confirmation from the White House about being over a billion dollars short this year...they were told a mistake in the budget
CNN interviews with some of the committee members show that they asked the WH during the budget process about what they saw as a coming shortfall in funding..
this past week, when asked, the WH said they would make it up from the VA's budget for maintenance and upkeep...problem there, the entire mainenance and upkeep budget totaled about $750 million...no where near enough to cover the over a billion shortfall
nice way for an Administration to treat our troops, eh?
make certain you let your elected federal Representatives know that you support those troops and want them to get the very BEST in health care...just like they were promised when they signed up
nuff said?
Excelsior!
3 - berkeley joe
hey aaman, was that in the book version or Rambo III, cuz honestly, I never read the book and can't remember what slash possible never say rambo III.
I was watching the "ultimate" dvd today of first blood, though, and there is an "alternate ending" in which rambo kills himself, via colonel Troutman.
4 - berkeley joe
i meant to say I possibly never SAW rambo III
5 - SFC SKI
In the book he kills himself.
The "crazy vet" archetype was a tremendous slander of the Vietnam vet, I hope we won't see it repeated for Iraq and Afghanistan war vets.
6 - Dave Nalle
Unlike the later Rambo movies, First Blood was actually quite a well written and skillfully directed film, and Stallone actually turns in a decent performance, probably his best aside from Rocky I.
As for the issue of how we treat our vets, there's nothing wrong with treating them decently even if you don't like the war they were in. It's their service and sacrifice you're recognizing, not the decisions made by their leaders.
Dave
7 - Aaman
He kills himself in the book version, and in the ending you refer to. THis ending was shown to test audiences, but the reactions were too visceral, and so it was reshot - thus you might call it the 'real ending'.
I reviewed it last year
8 - jstakes
i'm pretty sure iraq war vets will be treated much better than vietnam vets were-- on the surface.
kinda like how it is now. sayin nice things but not really showin it in actions.
those that have trouble reassimilating and have need for some quality mental health services after it's all over, well. good luck to them.
9 - Victor Plenty
Maybe the Scientologists will patriotically offer free testing and treatment to all the returning veterans who bring back mental health problems from the hell they've been through.
10 - MCH
One of the great ironies of our country is that such draft dodgers like Sylvester Stallone (student deferments) and Rush Limbaugh (student deferments, medical deferment for a pimple on his keester) have been able to become multi-millionaires by pretending to be patriots; while many of the truly courageous patriots (who weren't able to buy their way out of the war and actually fought the battles in Vietnam) are homeless and living in cardboard shacks, suffering from PTSD, nightmares, drug addictions, etc, etc...
11 - johnny
I am so dissappointed that I wasted the moments of my life that it took to read your post. I actually wanted to waste more so that I could explain why. First, you should learn how very difficult it is for a reader to understand you when you are arguing with yourself. You actually interupted yourself. That's amazing. Not to mention a series of broken thoughts loosely held together by conjunctions in order to pawn them off as some kind of complete thought. You offered no opinion, yet simply asked conflicting questions. I think you may have had a decent point somewhere in there and I hope you can someday articulate yourself more effectively.