The Worst Generation...

The Worst Generation The post WWII generation we know as the baby boomers are a stain on the memory of generations of Americans who came before them. How we have reacted to developments in our world is an embarrassment and shameful to all. Our parents were shocked from their isolationist complacency by a surprise attack that killed thousands of our military. We were shocked from our well fed complacency by a surprise attack that killed thousands of civilians sitting down to work. How these two generations responded to these challenges couldn't be more different. Our fathers and mothers fought our enemies to a bloody ruin. They fought a two-ocean war against enemies with millions of soldiers, enemies with half the resources on the planet, and with the universal will of their populations to see it through to the end. Enemies with no desire to destroy our society or occupy our land, by the way, only the desire to secure their own spheres of influence...and America was perceived as weak and in the way. How did we crush them so completely in just over 3 years that it took decades for them to recover? Crush them so utterly that we were easily able to imprint democracy on the few who were left? We did it with a national will that was like steel. Every civilian at home supported every American soldier under arms. American soldiers were supplied with an overabundance of materials that shocked our allies as well as our enemies. Every American, from children collecting scrap to the elite of Hollywood flying combat missions, was united in their desire to destroy the enemy army and homeland completely. The media at the time saw themselves as part and parcel of the struggle to win, no matter what it took. What it took was a war to the knife. At the end of the war, among exhausted allies and obliterated enemies, only America was left standing. The baby boomer generations reaction to attack and war couldn't be more different. Those boomers who answered America's call in the 60s and 70s were few, under supplied, and under appreciated. The majority of our generation saw us as an aberration, called us baby killers, and shunned us for our service. Hedonism and the cult of self is the only legacy that boomers want to leave to the world. Again we have been attacked by surprise, this time with thousands of civilians dead on a clear fall morning. This enemy is an order of magnitude weaker than any we have fought before, yet the issue is in doubt. This enemy is mired in a death cult dedicated to returning the world to a state that hasn't seen the light of day for 1300 years. An enemy whose only desire is to destroy the society built by these very boomers. This enemy's only important allies are American. What does my generation do? They march for unilateral peace when our enemy doesn't want peace...only martyrdom. They complain that we brought the attack on ourselves and that we should open a dialog with an enemy who just wants us dead...not witty dialog. They tell us it was our fault because we support the only democracy in the region, and applaud every child murdered in cold blood by savages, yet they condemn any accidental death we cause. They actively impede America by any means they can devise - fair, financial, or foul. They use their control of media to ridicule any who would argue for the fight. They have decided that the motivation of those who fight can only be stupidity. They have a blinding hatred for any who would be a leader at a time when leaders are a critical need. They use their control of schools and universities to corrupt the young with their foul ideologies. They yearn for past leaders whose weaknesses led us to our current horror. They lionize European governments with an unbroken history of exporting colonial terror, appeasement, ingratitude, and unconscionable weakness. There were always too few of us to change the strange culture of vulnerability, defeatism, and insane profligacy that the boomers embrace. The greatest generation would have known us as cowards and traitors. I'm glad that the boomers are starting to lose influence and die out. America will be a better place when this generational stain is finally gone. I have much more faith in the current crop of young Americans than I ever did in my own. These younger generations have allied with the millions of the greatest who are still with us, and now America is turning its back on the twisted priorities of the boomers. The worst generation will die whining and crying, denying the realities of life...just like they lived. A few of us try to go to our reward with our honor intact. I hope there is a place for me at my dad's table.