Sitting on the side lines watching the current political climate in Clark County brought a memory of Vietnam back to me.
I’m sure many others that served there or in another Combat Zone recognize what I recall too, that being newbie’s that arrive to your unit, fresh out of whatever training they received, officer, enlisted or what have you and their heads are filled with visions of victory, refusing to listen to older more experienced officers and NCO’s.
We labeled them as out to “win the war, single handed in one day.”
As any soldier can tell you, victory is never easy or quick, and that doesn’t take into consideration how our country seems to have adopted a call it quits attitude these last several decades.
Regardless, I am reminded of that very attitude as just a few years ago, several young, inexperienced politicos burst upon the scene, their heads also filled with visions of victory in quickly correcting the many wrongs they saw happening.
They were and are brash, headstrong and bombastic, unwilling to listen or heed any warnings from any that might have been involved much longer in the process.
Even some that had been involved for some time, jumped on board after a very few wins, never realizing their brash attitudes did not gain the wins, but superior campaigns waged by those candidates, as they ignored very important loses.
But the young and brash newbie’s were charged, they decided their actions brought about the wins and older people with more experience or any that dared not agree were purged, marginalized and even ridiculed until they no longer gave a damn.
Sadly, some highly respected people have allowed themselves to get sucked in by these hotheads and run the risk of losing much of the respect others not directly involved in politics, but who vote hold them in.
Of course, the brash hotheads give that no consideration, convinced they are invincible and again, will “win the war single handed in one day.”
Throughout all of this, they are not watching that their flanks are slowly being surrounded by the very ones the older and more experienced fought against for years to the point of pushing them back quite a bit.
They have their blinders on so tightly they fail to see the very projects we all fought long and hard against are slowly being resurrected and it will take more allies in Olympia to once again squash them, allies we might not see as those that stopped it earlier are also being ridiculed and marginalized, rumors abound of backing even more young, brash and inexperienced candidates to replace them next election are being heard all over town.
As I have said to many, I am backing away from these battles, having also been the target of these brash hotheads and see no reason to lend support or make suggestions to those that stab me in the back or are too butt headed to even listen.
It is now just a matter of waiting to see if they really will “win the war single handed in one day” or suffer the fate of most of those I saw in Vietnam that brought that attitude with them in country, as we zipped up their body bags.
Sadly, their impetuous, headstrong attitude all too often found us zipping up more body bags than we should have had to.
