I’m just old enough.

I’m just old enough to remember the non-war in Vietnam.  I believe it was referred to as military action.  Or something.  I know my father read about it in the evening paper almost obsessively.  I remember that I thought “poppa ganda” was related to Indira Gandhi.  Poppa being propa-ganda.  Both poppa and Indira were spoken of about equally often, so it seemed logical to me at the time.

I remember the draft and the worry my family felt because I had cousins who were of a particular age.  Two of them obtained “concientious objector” status.  None of the others numbers ever came up … at least to my knowledge.  When the troops came home I remember we all breathed a sigh of relief.

I don’t know how to breath any more tho.  Not when I read articles with this information in the Economist:

The surge, then, may be too small to make a decisive impact and yet too large for the American armed forces to bear. The tempo of troop rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan is already in breach of the Pentagon’s guidelines: two years at home for every year of operations abroad for the full-time army, and six years’ relief for reserve citizen-soldiers who make up nearly half the current strength in Iraq. Equipment is being lost in battle or worn out much faster than anticipated. A bigger army would help, but it will take years to recruit and train new combat units.