Florence Snyder: Who’s willing to send their own?

”Men raise flags when they can’t get anything else up,” Emperor Charlemagne’s mother tells her grandson in “Pippin,” the Tony Award-winning musical set in the 9th century.

You’d think the modern multibillion dollar erectile dysfunction industry would have fixed that problem. But plainly the drugs aren’t working.

Preening pols and pasty-faced pundits have been screaming for war since Friday’s attack on Paris. They have thus far not told us whose children will be providing the cannon fodder.

It’s worth noting, then, that Vietnam combat veteran Mac Stipanovich is willing to put his beloved grandsons where his mouth is on the subject of what to do about ISIS. Stipanovich, a lawyer, lobbyist and oft-quoted influencer, took to Twitter to call for “War. Not kinda war on the cheap. Boots on the ground. Higher taxes, less domestic spending, less consumption, conscription if needed. War.”

“I have grandsons coming of age for whom I fear, ” Stipanovich tweeted, “but I believe we must put aside hopes for peace and go to war with whoever will stand with us.”

Many of Stipanovich’s contemporaries burned their draft cards and fled to Canada rather than “engage communism” in Southeast Asia. Still, they respected the fact that people running the draft and reporting the news from the rice paddies had themselves “engaged fascism” in Europe and in the Pacific. The voting age public has no such respect for 21st century pols and pundits who don’t know a Sunni from a Shiite and can’t pronounce Raqqa, never mind locate it on a map.

They are unimpressed by Florida Man Jeff Zucker, who is rebranding CNN as the Childish News Network by deploying “talent” to ask the president of the United States on live TV, “Why can’t we take out these bastards?”

For an adult answer to that question, consider “Isis in Afghanistan” a PBS “Frontline” documentary by Afghan journalist and Alfred I. DuPont Award-winner Najibullah Quraishi.

It’s a stomach-churning, bone-chilling look at the district of Shaigal, where ISIS fighters have appropriated the land and the children of the locals.

Early childhood education starts at age 3, and the curriculum includes gun toting, grenade throwing, and suicide bombing. The villagers would spare their children this “education” if they could, but ISIS does not believe in school choice. They will take and brainwash the babies, with or without parental consent.

As we think about what to do next, let’s follow Stipanovich’s good example. Let’s find out who’s willing to put their own children’s skin in the game.

Florence Beth Snyder is a Tallahassee-based lawyer and consultant. Column courtesy of Context Florida.

Florence Snyder

Florence Beth Snyder is a Tallahassee-based lawyer and consultant.


2 comments

  • Jon Shebel

    November 20, 2015 at 10:41 am

    I will join Mac and offer up my grandchildren to fight any and all real threats to America. And, like Mac I am sure, I am ready to put my boots on again at any time. As to the present situation with radical Muslims it is pretty simple………………we either kill every one of them we can get or hands on “over there” or we will be fighting them “here”. We have an all volunteer military today that is the best trained and equipped force we have ever had even though they are the smallest force we have had since WWII. I spent time last week with some young Marine Raiders……….they are “ready” to move out and destroy those who threaten America. The concern should not be whether the young people of America will step forward to “close with and kill the enemy”………….they have for the past ten years and they will continue to do so…………THE PROBLEM IS WE DO NOT HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO WILL DO WHAT IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT AMERICANS AND OUR HOMELAND. Don’t worry about our young people…………they have and will “step forward”……………THE WORRY IS WHETHER THE NEXT COMMANDER-CHIEF-WILL WILL GIVE THE ORDERS TO OUR MILITARY TO CLOSE WITH AND KILL THE ENEMY AND GIVE THEM TOTAL SUPPORT AND REALISTIC
    “RULES OF ENGAGEMENT”. OBAMA’S ACTIONS HAVE BEEN DETRIMENTAL TO OUR MILITARY AND FAVORABLE TO THE “RADICAL MUSLIM TERRORISTS”…………….CLINTON’S APPROACH WILL BE THE SAME. So long as our young people and their parents feel the President is properly leading our military, there will be no shortage of young people “stepping forward”. If our young people feel the military does not have the proper backing of the President, THERE WILL BE A PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Pingback: Today on Context Florida: Syrian refugee showdown, skin in the war game and it’s still the economy - SaintPetersBlog

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