RANT: Support the Troops

[nadinbrzezinski]

So I went to a very local and overall VERY GOOD speculative fiction convention... and since I WRITE military Sci Fi and the program PROMISED research methods and theory and practice of the craft silly me I expected the panelists to know what they were talking about... Ok will avoid mentioning names or actual series, but a horror writer, who writes in the teen market, an alternative history (he was the cloest actually) writer and a Horror modern writer, do not experts make.

So I was fuming over that but was seating at the front and not like I could stand up and leave... here is what got my blood boiling... (apart of the fact they had no clue about the field, logistics, laws of warfare which became quite obvious, or for that matter any clue about actual war)

No you don't need to serve to do a good job writing this.. but it helps, and if yuo don't, go ASK... people will talk... what got me going was when one of them said that we were tying the hands of our military by actually having some Rules and Regulations regarding torture. Lets just say in the talk back section I laid into this clown hard... the vets in the audience said that I became that DI I once was when I trained my Red Cross Cadets... they just said we saw a DI... trust me that is a persona I keep hidden, it is not a nice persona (and yes as a MEXICAN Red Cross volunteer, I was technically part of the army for seven years, so yes they learned close order drill...)

So any way when I was done... this guy was shaken... and the vets (and one active duty member) were on their feet aplauding... for I said in ways that as one former squid put it, things they all wanted to say... oh and kept my imitation of a marine (yes I can swear like one) barely under control, some of it did come out.

Of course what truly set me off on this road I have not visited in over ten years (That Hyde side of my persona) was when he said, "like you've served!" Oh boy I have not felt that much rage. But what was so disconcerting was, (for him) at the end, when all my fury was spent... the vets told his guy, what she said, and one vet who retired showed this clown his ID as a retiree... we also told him to go get a fucknig clue and go enlist.

No we were not nice!

The organizers apologized and promised to either not have this forum next year, or get people who are actually qualified, and the active guy, we went for coffee, there is no way I could drive at that moment... he said what really had me and is still making me choke up... that is what support the troops actually means... standing up and saying what needs to be said, at the risk of social ridicule. he was also a JAG officer, and added... I thought only brainiacs like me cared for that shit any longer, refreshing to see that on the outside! So I told him what I did, and one of the many hats, he got it... but he was happy somebody was willing to go to bat on this issue with those who have been programed by FOX et al to think there is nothing wrong with Abu Graib.

Oh and none of us intends to buy the fiction, if you get my drift... we were pissed...

[driver8]

1. Wow!! Excellent post! I enjoyed reading it very much. As an

ex-Navy brat and ex-squid myself...I love how you lit into the "know nothings" on the panel. I wish I could have been there to throw a few words at them, myself.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Well what scared me is sci fi folks tend to be

fairly liberal, for the most part... but FOX and Rush have done a fine job... and I just saw it. (Yes virginia starship troopers is about fascsim... no, not quite.. but if they can confuse Heinlein's stance that you need to serve to be a citizen, and be willing to sacrifice with fascism we are having other problems)

I also hope that the fact that the vets and one active were on their feet will be a clue to the other oh ten people in the room that torture is not aproved off... no matter what FOX tells them.

And yes would have been nice if you were there...

And amazingly enough I have a hell of a time selling, becuase I try to cover the darker side of war in that fiction and for god sakes I have injured major characters to the point of disabilty and still debating when to start killing some... it is war, people die... I don't care how well connected.

[symbolman]

3. Let them have it

light a fire under their asses, way to go!

There's a duality involved with some of these kinds of people, on one hand they claim to be liberal, and on the other they think death and maiming is pretty cool, long as it happens to someone else.

It's one thing to be a geek and blow up frogs, quite another to listen to someone who watched his best friend who ran from a foxhole fall under some tanks and then have the tanks (OURS) keep coming and coming so there was literally NOTHING left of the guy under the tracks..while they watched the whole thing, unable to stop it..

I remember a bunch of breakroom studs reading the papers and hooting and bellowing about how WE'RE KICKING THEIR ASSES in Iraq the last time - All waving the papers around from a week of "news", so I walked in, and they all knew I had served, and I said, "This isn't a War pals.. spread those papers out.. you see ONE DEAD BODY in any of them?"

They got very quiet after that, and I never heard a single macho hoo haa again in that breakroom.

All Sanitized for your protection, just like a hotel bathroom seat.

Good for you, I remember when sci fi 'geeks' used to be friendly 'geeks' - looks like they are turning into DORKS now, and there's a big difference..

Lay it on them brother :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Not all, just some of the ahem young writers

have a curiousity of violence, and that is why they write this fiction...

okie dokie.

Heinlein did not see any redeeming quality in it

Now BattleTech and other games have not done much to help... I have yet to see them kill a major character in combat.. hell the time they should book flew across the room... all game rules were violated!

I might add, the culture of violecne has been in many ways perpetuated by comptuter games, that though cool, (who has not played Castle Wolfestein, version one for example) are not helping.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. What's "DI"?

A kind of mental trauma?

And why not name names? That was a public forum . . .

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Drill instructor

and you are opening yourself for defamation of character lawsuits when you mention this, that's why