I'd Just Like to Acknowledge and Salute, the Dedication of our New World War Two Memorial! Today's Dedication has Inspired me to Do So.

Tasteful and Well Fitting, -are Certainly Among it's Complimentary Descriptions!

Here Goes a Generally Comprehensive Representation and List, -Concerning World War Two, -in this Following Paragraph;-

Attu. Kiska. Pearl Harbor. Atlantic U Boats. Phillipines from Baatan to the Return! The Graf Spee and the Bismarck. Guadalcanal. The Battle of Britain. Our *Own* Subs Being such Magnificent *U-Boats* Against Japan!, in the Pacific War! The Great North African See Saw Battles! Midway and Coral Sea! Sicily! New Guinea. Salerno and Anzio. The Burma Campaign and Flying the Hump! The Rats of Tobruk! Tarawa, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Truk, Saipan, and All the Other Pacific Island Hopping we Did! The Rushan Turnaround at Kursk and Stalingrad! (I Prefer it's Proper Name of "Volograd"). Getting Yamamoto! And the Dolittle Raid! Normandy D-Day and Patton's Dash Across France! Earlier Dunkirk and Dieppe. The China Front and Theater, -Along with Chennault's Flying Tigers! The Steady March Up Italy. Iwo Jima and Okinawa! Heroically Beating Back and Dealing With those Kamikazes! The St Lo Carpet Bombing and Breakout! LeMay's B-29 Bombing of Japan! The Battle of the Bulge and the Dash Across the Remagen Bridge! Our Two Atomic Bombings of Japan Itself, -Which Spared U.S. a Costly Invasion! And the Resulting Surrender in Tokyo Harbor, and V-J Day! The French and Other Allied Resistance Forces! OSS and Other Special Operations and Forces. The Manhattan Project. B-17 and B-29 Strategic Long Range Bombers, on Maximum Effort Missions! Against Places like Hamburg, Dresden, Schweinfurt, Ploesti, Normandy, Tokyo, and Berlin. Monty's El Alamain Breakout! The Free World Home Fronts! Darker Moments such as the Fall of France Earlier in the War. That U.S.-Russian Meeting over the Bridge at Torgau! Another Bridge in Holland that Ended Up Being a Bit Too Far. The Fall of Berlin, Potsdam, and V-E Day Itself! Destruction of the nazi Heavy Water in Norway! These and Much Else Have Been World War Two!

I'd Like to Paraphrasingly Quote a Schoolmate of Mine, -Who I once Saw Enjoyably Reading a Library Book on World War Two! (This was Several Months After I Came Across It!, and Similarly Couldn't Put it Down! -"The Story of World War Two", -by Robert Leckie). And This Kid Wasn't even what you'd Call a Reader! But World War Two Did it for Him! And was a Notable Exception!

I'd like to Generally Quote What he Wrote Up in Review of It, at the End of the Year in our Class Paper. Of Which I've Always been Fond of! It Wasn't All that Much or Long. But What he Said, -He Said So Very Well! It Essentially Went, -

"You Will Follow the War Across the Ocean, Deserts, Jungles, and Mountains!....You Will Meet Great Leaders who Led to Victory!"

This is Indeed World War Two! And This is What we Indeed now Commemorate! That Freedom and Victory of Which our Sustained, Hard Work Efforts, -Led To!

Today's Dedication and Commemoration is Only Ever So Fitting and Deserving! A Very Survival of Such Values and Freedom!

A Quick Word on our Korean and Vietnam Commemorations too. Before Basically Following Up with some words on our Vietnam Efforts in Itself.

May we Have Korean Ones Throughout our Nation as Well! (I Must Sheepishly Admit, that I'm Currently Foggy on the Status of our National Korean War Memorial!)

And Concerning our Less Belated, but Still Quite Belated, -Vietnam War Memorial, -It Too is Very Great, Tasteful, and So On.

But I've Always Felt that it Should be Made of *White* Marble!, -Not Black!

When's the Downing and Crying About our Largely Fine Nation and Free System Gonna End!?

The Names Can and Should be in Black. But the Great Background of our Wall and Memorial Itself!, -Should be White! Shamelessly and Unabashedly White! Our Vietnam and Indochinese Efforts are Nothing to be Ashamed of!!!!

Of Course our Cowardly Bugout that we Did Come to Do!, -Is Something to be Ashamed of! But Not of Our Efforts There Itself!

If the War Ended Up Being in Vain, -It was the "Out Nowers!" who *Made* It be so in Vain!

Somewhat Briefly and Basically, -We and the Other Freedom Desiring Peoples of Indochina Could Have Won that War! It's Not Written in Stone Anywhere that that is an Impossibility!

How?, -Here's How!,-

A). An *Earlier* Vietnamization, -Johnson Shud Have Done the Vietnamization that Nixon Later Did.

The Above Shouldn't Preclude *Any* American Ground Prescense. But Still, -the South Vietnamese Should Bear the Majority of their Own Country's Ground Defense! Via *Our* "Held To" Vietnamization Backup. It just so Happened that the Republic of South Vietnam had the Population Base / Manpower, -to be Able to Do So! -Enuff for a Million Man Army!

(Now with Soviet Supplies Pouring into Haiphong and Smaller North Vietnamese Ports, -We for Our Part Must Also Still Supply a Vietnamization Aid. South Vietnam could Supply it's Own Manpower. But it Couldn't Manufacture and Operate it's Own Tanks and B -52s! "Operate", -Not Applying here to ARVN Tank Operations. But South Vietnam Itself Certainly Couldn't be Manufacturing Them! Thats *Our* Part! Thats What We Can and Should Do! In Freedom's Common Cause and Purpose! With the Soviets Pouring into Haiphong What the North Can't Do of Itself!, -It's Only Fair Game that We Even Out the Score!, -the Same!)

So it Should Be a Vietnamization of Which We for Our Part, -Remain Behind and Faithful Towards!

B). A Great U.S. Airpower and Seapower Backup! Of Which we Aren't a Bit Sheepishly or Squeamishly Afraid to Use! After All, -Thats What its There For!

C). Bombing and Mining of the North! As Well as Other Enemy Occupied Areas of Indochina.

And,-

D). Cutting of that Ho Trail! Via a Strong, Well Tree Cleared, Fortified Line, -Clear Across Southern Laos to Thailand and the Mekong! Beginning at the Westernmost End of the South Vietnamese DMZ .

Bombers and Other Airpower could Continue Bombing and Interdicting North of that Line! As a Bonus, -Onetime Airpower Efforts South of that Line, -Could Now be Freed Up Toward Augmenting this Northern Air Effort.

And I'd Like to Add an

E).-! Which is Solidarity Behind our War Efforts Here at Home!

We Could Have SO Won that War! We Did NOT *Have* to Lose it!!!

North Vietnam and the VC would Have Withered on the Vine! They'd Eventually be Isolated, and Looking Quite Odd and Stupid for it!

Perhaps an Even Stronger and More Confident South Vietnamese Armed Forces, -Could Eventually have Invaded North Vietnam Itself! -For Once and For a Change! North Vietnam's Entire Southern Panhandle, -for Instance, -Could Have Been Taken! North Vietnam would Thus be Even More Isolated. Being Limited Only to the Much Smaller Hanoi / Haiphong / Red River Valley Area.

South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos could be Free Countries Today! Prosperous Partners with the Other Southeast Asian Economic Tigers!

North Vietnam and the VC, -Would Again Now Look as the Real Oddos!

I Deplore the Large Amount of Corruption, Nepotism, and Such in South Vietnam, Saigon, and the ARVN. But PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. is Worse! PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. from the North, the Viet Cong, Khmer Rouge, and Indeed even the Soviets and Red Chinese, -is Worse! Let U.S. Never Forget That!!!

Our Doves and our Congress Really Let Them Down!, -in 1973 to 1975! It Didn't Have to Be So Lost!

I Refer Anyone to Nixon's and Kissinger's Books! -For the Real Lessons and Story on Indochina and Vietnam!

We Grew Tired After Awhile as Ho Said! And Tragically Threw In a Towel that we Really Didn't Have To!

There *Was* Light at the End of the Tunnel! But the Doves Stood In the Way and Eclipsed That! And Then they Turned Around and Said it Wasn't Even There! Of Which Much of the American Public just Bought Up and Beleived! -Mis-Believed!

And the So Called Discrediting of the Domino Theory, -is Something that we've Got to Disabuse Ourselves of too! For the Falls of Both South Vietnam and Cambodia, -Occurred within a Month or Less!, of Each Other! And Before that Year of 1975 was Out!, -Laos Too Fell! To the North Vietnamese and Other Communists. At Least Much Thanks Going to our Own Short Sighted, War Weary, Ball Dropping and Running Out!, of a Way!, -Here at Home! And So Goes It!, -For the Notion that the Domino Theory has Somehow Been Discredited! Or Didn't Occur! The Three Free Indochinese Countries All Falling in Short Order of Each Other! Within that Same Year of 75! And There's Suppossedly No Domino Theory?! No!, -To Boot, -It was Domino Facthood!

Again, -It Just Didn't Have to be Lost! And Could Have Been Won! Had We just Stayed the Course and Kept At It!

It's Suppossedly Being an Unwinnable War! That we Really Shouldn't Have Gotten Into! What a Silly Notion! On Both Counts!

We Did Additionally Hand Osama and Co, -Much Encouragement, -By Our 1975 Bugout Carry Ons! As he More than a Few Times has Made Mention Of!

It Needn't Have Been Lost! And Actually *Could* Have Been WON! The Preceeding has been the Basic How!

Now Talking About the Lessons of Vietnam!, -These are Some of the Real Lessons of Vietnam!

We Need(ed) More of that GI Joe Going After Charlie Spirit! And that Patton and Curtis LeMay Spirit! Or Vietnam's General John D. LaVelle.-He Said, -"If I Had to Do it Over Again, -I Would Do It Again!" He Got in Official Trouble over Protective Reaction Strikes. Add McArthur and Bull Halsey to that Distinguished List Too! How Bout Dolittle?! And His Famous Surprise Tokyo Raid! Medium Army Bombers being Launched from a Carrier at Sea! How Bout that Dolittle Raid!? Dolittle was Mis-Named! -He Did a Lot!

Incidentally, -I Still Call it's Capital City as Saigon! Refuseing to Suscribe to "ho chi minh City"! Moreover, -"Saigon" is So Much Nicer a Name in Any Event!

So Our Vietnam Memorial Wall, -of Which we Had Finally Got to Building!, -This Should Be of White Marble, -Not Black!

Let U.S. Respect, Mourn, Honor, and Grieve our Losses, -Yes! But to Be Somehow Tail Turningly Ashamed of our Entire Effort!, -NO! -A Ringing and Resounding NO There! As Reagan's Often Said on a Number of Things, -"I Utterly Reject that View!"

We've Been Belated About it Once Again, -But Now We've At Last Addressed our Latest Lacklapse! And Now Have our National World War Two Memorial. As We Only Long and Well Should!

I Salute and Congratulate Such! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]

I think my fellow veterans will agree a far better memorial would be adequate funding for the promises made by a "greatfull Nation" instead of a V.A. working under 40 % cuts with more promised if the present regime remains in power. An even greater memorial would be no more lousy memorials.

Chris:

It is a damn shame that people are blinded by monuments instead of substance, but a lot of them are afraid if they damn the monument, they will look unsympathetic. The powers that be do that sort of stuff on purpose.

In 1996 I ran for the position of Wisconsin State Representative for my district, spent over $6,000.00 and was beaten 10 to 1 in the polls. The issue that got my goat was the public funding of Miller Park for the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball stadium. I couldn't believe the flak I got from ordinary citizens about objecting to CORPORATE WELFARE for people that had more money than they needed.

Now I am $6,000.00+ poorer and paying taxes to fund rich people and thier stadium.

Bountyhunter

Along the Lines of your Point, -I Did a Few Weeks Ago See a Really Disturbing News Show Report, -About the Often Sorry State of Some of our VA Hospitals! Very Concerning, Disturbing, and Sad. "It's in the Enough to Make your Blood Boil!" Category as Well! Not just the Insulting Neglect! But the Corruption and it's Like in the System as Well! I Can Only Sadly Shake my Head!, -in Both Sadness and Anger!

Now Perhaps these News Shows somewhat Effectively Exaggerate Things! But if Even a Fraction of our VA Hospitals and Medical Facilities are Like That!, -Then How Very Sad! How Very Insulting to these Veterans! And How Truly "Angerative"!

This is Not to say that there may Not also be as Much as Exceptional, Outstanding, VA Facilities and Personnel as Well! But Sadly and Gallingly, -This Apparently Isn't Everywhere within this System!

So Back to your Point, -Yes we're to Remember Them and Honor Them in These Sorts of Ways Too! Beyond Only Memorials, -However Well Made and Thought Out. But Along with Such, -There Should be Such Memorials as Well. Of course Between the Two, -Your Priority Should perhaps Come First. If it Should Really Come Down to such a Choice Between the Two. But to the Extent we can Have Them, -the Appropriate Upstanding Memorials Shouldn't be Foregone either.

And while Some would Agree with you, -that in the Reasons you Give, -a "Standard Memorial" is a Lousy Memorial, -Others Will Not! Some Others, -Including some Active Serving and Veterans, -Would Differ with That, and be Offended by It! I at Least Somewhat Am. But I Understand the Reason you Gave, -and Where you are Coming From too. You Arrive at Such from a "Pro-Veteran" Standpoint, as Do I. But Just a Note of Caution on How Others may Feel towards your Use of the Term "Lousy", in This Matter and Context.

Some of this VA System Neglect and Abuse may be Occurring Anyway, -Even if there Weren't a 40 % Cutback as you Mention. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Chris Kavanaugh[/email]

Yeah!, -We here in the Burg Shud Have Kept our Less than 30 Year Old Three Rivers Stadium too! And Not Demolished it, -Building Two New, Unneccessary Stadiums in it's Place. And Partly at Public Expense too, I Think! Three Rivers was Certainly as Good and Great as Ever! It was Certainly Good Enuff! For Both our Pirates and Steelers. A Few Suppossed Defects against our Creature Comfort Preferences, -was No Call or Cause to Tear it Down!

We Now have Two Unneccessary Stadiums, -and at Least at Partial Public Expense to Boot!

When What this City Really Needs is More and Better Infrastructure, Highways, Parking Garages, and the Like.

We Need a First Class Rapid Transit System! Even if "Only" a Metro Wide Trolly System, -such as Atlanta's Marta! As Oppossed to our One, and Only One, Good Line. Which Goes into our Southern Suburbs Only! My Experiences on the MARTA, as Well as Philly's SEPTA, -Has Really Put my Area's Transit Picture to Shame! But So Goes Much of the Predominant Thinking, and Prevailing Attitude, Around Here!

I Remember Good Ole Three Rivers being Built!, as an 11 and 12 Year Old. And All the Glowing Talk that Went Along with that! "It Will Last For Years!" "The Pirates and Steelers are Only Happy to Share It!" If One would Have then said, -That we Would be Tearing it Down *Within Only 30 Years"!, -People Would Have Laughed Right in One's Face!

Yet Isn't that Precisely What this Town has Done?!

Don't Get me Wrong! I Liked and Enjoyed Good Ole Forbes Field too! I've Gone to a Few Games there too, -in those Later 60s! A Fond Enuff Memory and Experience!

But at Least it was Torn Down After some 60 or More Years! Not a Mere 30! Thats More within what could be Called Expected Normalcy!

Rather than Work on More Crucially Needed Infrastructure towards our Survival and Better Development, -We Put Up at some Public Expense, Two Unneccessary Stadiums, -and Tear Down a Perfectly Good One. And Not All that Old of a One to Boot!

Just Like All the Steelers Clowns we Keep On, Year After Year! Just Because we're Too Nice to Pitch Them or Something! Too Attached, and Keep On Giving them Another Chance!

(Reminds me of All the "Last Chances" we've Given saadam! Before Bush # 2 Finally, -Thru Hoops Jumping, -was Able to Put his Foot Down!)

Now if This Town were Dallas!, -They'd Fire Such Clowns in a Heartbeat! Thats Some of the Real and Great Difference!

Certainly if the Corporate and Private Interests that Be, -Can Fund or Line Up Loans for Such Themselves, -Then their Pet Stadium Projects Shud Not be Built at Public Expense! And Even if They Can't Swing That, -in Many Instances Such *Still* Shouldn't be Built at Public Expense! [color:"black"]

Incidentally, -I Gladly Have Not Yet Gone!, to either PNC Park or Heinz Field! And Aim to Continue Boycotting them so! I'm Gonna Put my Actions Where my Words Are!

Also, While I'm Business Friendly and Understand that they've Got the Naming Rights, -Now that they've Built it!, -I Think it Much More Appropriate, that PNC Rather be Named Clemente Park or Stargell Field! And Heinz Shud Have "Rooney" or Someone in it's Place! [/color] [email]bountyhunter[/email]

Well, -I Wanted to Shorten the Paragraph in my Starter Post of this Thread by about Half or More, in a Later Edit. The one which Gives many Representative Locales about WW-2, and a Sense of What it's All About. Its Well Within the 24 Hour Edit Period, -Not even Halfway Up. Yet I Got an Edit Time Expired Message this Morning.

I Think I Know what *May* have Happened. Yet it's a Bit Unfortunate in that this Morning's Edit would have been a *Shortening* of that particularly Long Paragraph, -Not a Lengthening of Anything! In the Name / Spirit of Brevity, I Can't in this particular Case be Brief! How Ironic. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> But I Understand Where One might be Coming From too.

Basically, -This Idea Occurred to me Not 5 Minutes After I had finally Shut Everything Down for the Night, -Round Two Thirty in the Morning. I Judged it Better Not to Fire the Computer Up, Log In, Etc, -Till Later in the Daylight Part of the Morning! The Edit Period should be No Problem. Yet the Message Still Came Up.

Perhaps if this Post is Read in Time, -I can yet Shorten that particular Paragraph. If Not, -I Can't. And We'll have to so Let it Stand. (But its Not Like I Don't Want to!) [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]

The Content of this Post is Pretty Self-Evident in the Title. I'll Mostly Let it so Stand.

I'd like to Add, though, -That the Man who Addressed, Attended, and Honored Those who Made D-Day a Successful Reality back in 84, on the Occassion of it's 40th, -President Ronald Reagan, of course. -This Person Surely has to have been Looking Down on our Current One Doing the Same, -on the Occassion of it's 60th! And I'm Sure with Satisfaction and a Smile!

(I Mean here to Cast the Warm and Well Reflecting Glow toward Ron, -Not George. Contrary to Possible Appearances. Thus this Note. All Due Respects to George as Well.)

It is Inconceivable that Ronald was Not Looking Down!, -or was Not So Aware! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]