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>>>but I love the place and find the French charming. I certainly don't fault them for not getting behind the Iraq war - one must act in what one perceives to be one's own national interest. I do notice there have been some changes in France since, so I don't think we are too far apart on the big things and I think it would be a very bad mistake for our mutual enemies to doubt that. I am told by people I think know that in the war against the Gottbedrunken crazies they are completely on board and often play rougher than we do.
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>>I've visited a few military cemeteries in France. Its a sobering experience looking at the ages of a lot of the dead. They where just children.
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>Yes, visiting a national cemetery is a sobering experience. I pass one on the way to San Francisco. The tombstones follow the rolling hills east of the freeway as far as you can see.
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>I was 17 when I enlisted in the military. Who thinks about getting killed at that age? When I was 45, I was at a coffee break with a group of fellow employees. We were all Vietnam veterans. The conversation got around to age in the military and ones attitude about invulnerability.
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>I gave a scenario as a 45 year old: We are surrounded by the enemy. The sergeant says, “Take that hill boy”! I replied, “FUC* you!” We all agreed that was reality. Amazing what a few years can do to ones attitude! :)


You are completely right about the feeling of invincibility of the young. I have to suspect, though, that even very young soldiers have to know a lot of them are going to die trying to take that hill.

I had an interesting conversation with the neighbor across the alley after "Saving Private Ryan" came out. I knew Sam had been a captain in WW II and seen combat in the South Pacific, so brought up the movie the next time I saw him. He said, no, he hadn't seen the movie and didn't expect to. (According to him the last movie he went to was "The Sound of Music", when it was new). We talked a little about the war, as much as he was willing to say, which wasn't too much. I told him about the scene at the beginning of the movie where soldiers are vomiting as their boats approach the beach. He said, "Yeah, I can believe that, saw similar things." I asked Sam if he was scared. When he finally answered he said, "Sure I was scared. We all were. And anyone who says he wasn't is lying."