Another video that is hard to watch. Is it cowardice when you are against war? Some people say the Vietnam protestors were cowards for running away to Canada. I see them as courageous for protesting a war that was unjustified. Vietnam never did anything to us and the pretext that they were Communists was bunk–only 25% of the population was Communist before the war…and guess what happened after the war? More of them became Communist–not less.
The made-for-tv movie The Execution of Private Slovik – based on the true story of Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier executed for desertion during WWII – aired 40 years ago last month. Chris Walsh considers the film’s success in 1974 and ponders why today “cowardice in the military is a topic too obscure and tender for nonmilitary Americans to contemplate”:
We are willing to have other people’s children put themselves in harm’s way, but we feel both ignorant and guilty about it, and that is enough to keep us from presuming to criticize, much less punish, a deserter. Reflecting on the alleged cowardice of a soldier like Slovik leads to disturbing questions: What would we do in his place? Why haven’t we joined the fight, or more actively supported those who do — or, alternatively, joined in the debate about whether fighting is the right thing? Why did we…
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Eagle 