Part 6 (1/2)

The world's record for killing was set on August 6, 1945, at Hiroshi+ma

There have been tiood reason except to take its land or its goods, or siht without some ethical pretension People want to believe they're on God's side and he on theirs One nation does not usually attack another any that its motives are honorable The japanese didn't attack Pearl Harbor with any sense in their own , deceitful or infaion It was in a frenzy of religious fervor that japanese Kalory on theirto victory prayers from both sides, would be understandably confused

It has always see to the people who disapprove of war that we have spent much of our tiet of anyand leaves us half to live on

It's interesting that the effective weapons of war aren't developed by warriors, but by engineers In World War I they made a machine that would throw five hundred pounds of steel fifty e of liquid fire that would burn people like bugs The engineers are not concerned with death, though

The scientist who splits an atom and revolutionizes warfare isn't concerned arfare; his mind is on that fleck of un a man can carry that will spit out two hundred bullets a h the man who invented it, in all probability, loves his wife, children, dogs, and probably wouldn't kill a butterfly

Plato said that there never was a good war or a bad peace, and there have always been people who believed this was true The trouble with the theory is that the absence of war isn't necessarily peace Maybe the worst thing Adolf Hitler did was to provide evidence for generations to come that any peace is not not better than any war Buchenasn't war better than any war Buchenasn't war

The generation that had found Adolf Hitler hard to believe was eo help the people of the world who needed help so desperately That generation deterain and as a result eneration doesn't understand why the United States went into Vietnaotten into the war, all it wanted to consider itself a winner was to get out Unable toto accept defeat, it ht Eisenhower, 1962: ”I think it's only defense, self-defense, that's all it is”

John Kennedy, 1963 : ”In the final analysis it's their war They're the ones that have to win it or lose it”

Lyndon Johnson, 1969: ”But Aed her essential position And that purpose is peaceful settlement”

Richard Nixon, 1974: ”But the time has come to end this war”

There are a lot of reasons for the confusion about a war One of them is that the statesht one theht the battles

Professional soldiers often say they hate war, but they would be less than huao to West Point for four years and not be curious about whether you'd be any good in a war?

Even in peacetie armies The trouble with any peacetime all-volunteer army is that the enlisteda hen the general population takes up ares and for the better

In the twentieth century there is open rebellion between the people who decide about whether to fight or not and so It hasn't always been that way Through the years, even the reluctant draftees have usually gone to battle with some enthusiasm for it Partially the enthusiasm comes fro home on a crusade It's a trip to somewhere else, and with the excitereat adventure, with the possibility of being killed the one drawback to an otherwise exciting tihout history but there is very little difference in the andized to believe in the or sophisticated than pride in a high-school football teah and ins to boil

Patriotic has always been considered one of the good things to be in any nation on earth, but it's a question whether patriotisood or evil in the world

Once the young et into a battle, most of them are neither heroes nor cowards They're swept up in a o where they're told to go, do what they're told to do It isn't long before they're tired and afraid and they want to go hoarded because we recognize that soood for all of us, certainly at the risk and possibly at the expense of his own life But in war, the h they were all heroes This is partly because everyone else is grateful to hie him to keep at it All soldiers who cos to very few of themand often to the dead they left behind

In part, at least, this accounts for why soare done with and they are safe at home, it ency shoe-repair battalion In their own eyes, they are heroes of the front lines

Even in retrospect, though, a nation has always felt an obligation to honor its warriors The face of the earth is covered with statuary designed for this purpose that is so bad in many cases that were it not in honor of the dead, it would evoke not tears but laughter

During and since World War II, the United States alone has bestowed ten million medals and ribbons of honor on its soldiers,a year in Paris

Bravery is as rare in war as it is in peace It isn't just a er froer because the alternative to doing that is worse or because he doesn't understand the danger, thisother than bravery Stupidity faces danger easier than intelligence The average bright young man who is drafted hates the whole business because an army always tries to eliminate the individual differences in men The theory is that a uniforood for an army but terrible for an individual who likes himself the way he is

Some men, of course, like the order i hard decisions that ives them

There is always more precision on the drill field back home than there is on the battlefield Uniformity of action becomes less precise as an army approaches the front At the front it usually disappears altogether It is not always, or even usually, the best hters

Everyone talks as though there was nothing good about war, but there are sos and it's easy to see why so s about war, the chances are ould find a way not to have another

A nation at war feels a unity it senses at no other tiether There is a sense of coreater, change is quickerand if progress is motion, there isitself, overeating, over-dressing, lying in the sun until it's tis out the worst in people as it has been assus out the very best It's the ultimate co only as much of our ability as is absolutely necessary toit, he uses all his brain and all his muscle He explores depths of his eht never have occasion to use again in his lifetith he didn't know he had accos he didn't know he could do

The best thing about war is hard to describe, is never talked about Most of us get a war e act in close and successful relationshi+p with others, and maybe that happens more in war than any other time There is a lonesomeness about life that no one who has experienced it likes to talk about, and acting together for a coht to be at their very best

It is paradoxical but true that in hen man is closest to death, he is also closest to complete fulfillment and farthest fro

And there is another thing about war If there is love in us, there is hate, too, and it's apparent that hate springs from the same well as love and just as quickly No one is proud of it but hate is not an unpleasant emotion and there is no tie ourselves in an orgy of hate

The worst of war is hell but there isn't much of the worst of it and not many soldiers experience even that much

A soldier at war doesn't feel the need to answer any questions about it He is exhausted by the battle

He is busy destroying and it does not occur to hi down

He often s will be like for the rest of his life

And they are only like that for a very short time

Part III

A Few Decades with Andy Rooney

[ie]The home of ”A Few Minutes”

In 1978 ”Three Minutes With Andy Rooney,” a short segs praiseworthy, annoying, and worthy of inspection, was aired at the end of 60 Minutes 60 Minutes Initially a sument between liberal writer Shana Alexander and conservative columnist James Kilpatrick, by the end of the season ”Three Minutes” had become ”A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” and had assumed the primetime spot The people had spoken Andy Rooney's no-nonsense approach to life hit a nerve With ”A Few Minutes” Rooney firmly established himself as a beloved contrarian, a man who liked to poke holes in co, , and the rewards of skepticism In its past thirty-one seasons, ”A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” has won ly cluttered walnut desk at CBS (a desk that he built), Rooney's on-air tily clear-eyed look at the perils and joys of the world we live in

The Man Behind the Desk Introducing Andy Rooney To begin with, here are sooing to read what I write, I ought to tell you how I stand: -I prefer sitting but when I stand, I stand in size 8 EEE shoes There have been periods incharacteristic