"Imagine All... The Pe-puh-ull"

A reader sent in a link to a story about another submarine veteran in the Boise area, but I don't think I've met this guy at any SubVets meetings:

"Scarbrough doesn't necessarily fit the anti-war profile: he's neither an idealistic kid nor a battle-scarred combat vet. At 51 years old, Scarbrough spent five years in the Navy during the Cold War, four of them aboard a "fast attack" nuclear submarine patrolling Cold War hot spots in the Pacific. He says he didn't have the combat experience of being surrounded by horrific acts and being asked to commit them, but he did have an epiphany of sorts while he was serving. He realized that he didn't want to be part of anything where he could push a button and blow up the world, either by accident or under orders. Of this realization Scarbrough says, "I'm sure it wasn't as strong for me as a guy who saw his friend's head blown off," but it was enough."

Dude, if you're able to push a button and blow up the world as an enlisted coner on an attack boat, you've really screwed up.

Scarbrough waxes philosophical at the end of the article:

"War monuments show the respect and honor the fallen deserve, but they also show that we haven't learned anything," Scarbrough says. Society glorifies war, he explains, but he wants to make people realize the reality of combat is very different. Some people go to war and have epiphanies, and some realize that they enjoy killing--"it can work both ways"--but either way, people come back changed. "I wish we could never build another monument," he says. "My goal would be to have a veteran-less world."

And then we could love everyone around the world, and they'd love us, and we'd all be so happy... I used to think that, too, but then the Demerol wore off, and all I had was a dull ache where my wisdom teeth used to be.