Wednesday, January 09, 2008

What if returning soldiers overthrew the government?

Various folks have discussed the fact that a lot of the returning vets are pissed. They got sent into battle without the shit they needed to win for reasons that nobody is really clear about, they get abused and ignored by their government once they get back home, and steam is starting to rise. What if, some of these folks have asked, these soldiers turned their guns on the government that has abandoned them?

Well, history has a lot to say there, whether it's the aftermath of the Punic Wars where the vets basically ended the Roman Republic, or Oliver Cromwell's role in the English Civil War, where his army fought for Parliament against a bad king, then once said king got deposed... uhm, well, that's when the bad shit starts happening. The usual result is lots of dead bodies, then a new dictator, closely followed by lots MORE dead bodies and eventually a re-institution of the prior government. I'm remembering one veteran in particular, I think he was a corporal or something, served on the front lines, got injured, got together with a buncha his former wartime buddies and assorted others and eventually took over his country and killed, oh, maybe 30,000,000 people or so. Yeah, *that* veteran, was a corporal in WWI, ran his country into the ground until it was rubble by 1945.

Frankly, I don't think this is the course we want to go in this country. Not yet, anyhow. Our current government is pretty damn evil, but not *that* kinda evil, the kinda evil where the evil of overthrowing it at gunpoint is less than the evil of the government itself. Not yet, anyhow. And hopefully never.

- Badtux the History Penguin

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2 comments:

  1. Unknown10/1/08 12:29 AM

    Didn't another disgruntled veteran blow up some building or other in Oklahoma?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Minstrel Boy10/1/08 8:46 AM

    i with ya tux. i have some heavy shit i'm mulling over right now. posting will resume shortly.

    ReplyDelete

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