Yeats Poem, Dedicated to the REMF God Petraeus
POLITICS
HOW can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
3beze
posted by The Minstrel Boy at 12:45 PM
13 Comments:
you wanna tell'em what REMF stands for or you want me to?
yo soy Horsedooty!
I'm always up for Yeats, but...are you suggesting distractions are being waved before us? That these learn'd men's testimonies are naught but a bit of piffle?
Lovely.
Thanks for all your great recipes too.
BTW, stopped by to Tag you. You're IT! :D
http://myrtlejune.blogspot.com/2008/04/tag.html
you wanna tell'em what REMF stands for
You mean "Rear Echelon Mother Fucker"? ;-)
it's been standard vocabulary with me for over 40 years.
Hey, does anyone remember what happened to the Roman Empire???
Nuff said.......
REMF, hey i learn something new every day here! ; )
thanks Oddjob, I just thought it important that some might not know what REMF stood for.
yo soy Horsedooty!
Few acronyms are more fitting! Another fave of mine is "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up), coined by WWII vets, I believe.
Not sure why Petraeus gets tarred as REMF God. Generals are REMFs most of the time, then and now, but he wasn't always. Not his fault he was born a few years too late for our war, and didn't smell gunsmoke again until this one.
We shouldn't have gone in there in the first place, & the sooner we're out the better, but at the moment General P is the one holding this bag of shit and having to paste a smile on his face and tell the frat boy that as shit goes, this could smell a lot worse. He's got to make the glass look half-full, a job I sure wouldn't want.
But Jesus, doesn't the Army love to hang bling on its uniform blouses? In the Air Force we always showed more restraint.
look at the bling on petraeus' chest. he got his "v" device during a shelling. he sent guys out under fire to measure craters to see if he qualified.
i knew lots of guys who worked supply and other support gigs that were dedicated and consumate soldiers. others, treated us like chumps. lording over the goodies and luxuries they were stealing. enriching themselves while others were doing the bleeding and dying.
petraeus had many chances to get "in" on many actions. grenada, panama, 1st gulf. he chose to cement his political connections and be "studious."
i would have been ashamed to walk around with a chest full of geedunk. my lowest row of decorations was good conduct, and two expert markmanship medals (pistol & rifle).
it was the trident above them that said it all.
Look at Eisenhower or even Patton and you don't see the resplendent fruit salad that Petraeus sports. Somehow, fewer look better than more and too many is absurd. First thing I noticed is no Combat Infantry Badge, the only one that counts in my collection. In addition to my CIB, I also spent time as a REMF. A REMF with a CIB knows where you're coming from.
i like the british system myself. you see a brit with two or three decorations and you know you have a ring tailed wildcat in front of you. washington wasn't big on decorations either. he, like napoleon, though learned the power of "a piece of ribbon."
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