I don't think
this is what was meant by "No End but Victory":
The unprecedented number of troops who are returning from Iraq with missing limbs has given the US Paralympic Team an unexpected recruitment boost and the chance to become “unbeatable” at the next Games in Beijing in 2008. More than 60 potential recruits have already been identified in sports as varied as powerlifting, archery and table tennis.
This is not from the Daily Show or the Onion. This is a real 'news' item from the Times of London. Of course:
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and
dance and sing
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle
- that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright
side of life...
(Whistle)
Come on.
Always look on the bright side
of life...
(Whistle)
(
and so on...). That's right, the Monty Python school of foreign affairs reporting is alive and well. (link via:
Wonkette)
2 comments:
You might see something, 'jolly rotten' there, but I don't.
That young, and not so young men are losing limbs but surviving largely otherwise intact is new in warfare.
Every trend and indication suggests that technology will be able to replace most of the lost functioning of real limbs soon (if not now) and at some point even the look of real limbs.
These troops have been altered irrevocably, but the people I've met who've lost limbs aren't embittered (and I've met a few, military and non-military). Yes, it's a huge adjustment, but it's not an impossible adjustment, and in a technological/service based economy these people are at no disadvantage whatsoever in the marketplace.
Better a lost limb than a lost life. I assume the Times of London was trying to make some larger point about the horrible cost of war, but they also (inadvertently) point to the amazing resilience of the people who volunteer for our armed forces.
I don't disagree. Murderball was one of my favorite movies of the year because it didn't treat the subjects as 'special' athletes, but rather as special athletes. And it completely worked on that level.
Something about the celebratory tone and the use of the term "recruitment boost" just rubbed me completely the wrong way.
Post a Comment