Belgium Hospital Farm Cemetery (#0329)

Those numbers about the deaths in WWI are something that I intellectually knew, but it wasn't until looking at the proximity of the graveyards and their distribution across small towns and farms, that the number began to become real. My family had an odd disdain for family history, so I know nothing about family involvement in WWI and very little even re WWII.

As a veteran of the Vietnam war era (not of the war itself) who was very much aware of the American class bias in who actually is in the military, I'm very sensitive to the extent that war-mongering is for the status of the elite. I didn't have a doctor to write off my participation in the Vietnam-era military, unlike DJT.

I consider myself very fortunate to have lived through a long era of relative peace (not counting a couple of what really are minor skirmishes, at least from the American side). I have no personal memory of the Vietnam era, which ended when I was 3, and the Gulf Wars were TV affairs that never affected me personally in any way. My Dad was a little old for Vietnam, and he'd already done his stint in the Navy. I have an uncle who would have been drafting age, but he lucked out. My paternal grandfather was about a decade too old to fight in WWII, and he already had six kids when it started. My maternal grandfather was kicked out of the Army, and he wouldn't have seen combat anyway as he'd lost an eye as a child. So war was never something my family talked about, and sites like these for me are merely academic.

I have a great fear that's all about to change.

Поверьте, вам будет хорошо (trust me, you'll be fine)

Будем надеятся...

I was mimicking Bannon..Вы понимаете русский?

Немножко. Я занимался русским языком в университете. А теперь…

Я был лингвистом в военно-воздушных сил, но забыли много

You know Homeland Security is probably tracking this conversation :)

Нет. Россия -- наш друг сейчас! ;)