Quote:
Originally Posted by rubicon
To those who subscribe to the theory that the Greatest Generation is a myth fail to recognize that this generation faced the GreatDepression and judging by their generous behavior as exhibited in movie, song and commentary did so with surprisingly more courage and class than do the present whinning generations of today. To those who subscribe to the theory that the Greatest Generation had no choice but to........negates the true greatest of these people who were facing " a world at war" and either is not aware or ignores the fact that America was not prepared for a world war and but for many leaders in the business community who had the insight and courage to turn from making butter to making guns( because we were not prepared and lacking greatly in ships airplanes tanks ammunitions, etc)had they not we all would be speaking Nazi-isms today. And Truman's decision to use the A-bomb had to be one of the most difficult in the history of this country. Apparently the true greatness of this generation is fading with the passage of time....but then we have as some believe the courage of Obama that is showing us how to lead from behind and if things go wrong blame others. To compare the greatness of Obama to leaders such as Truman, Eisenhower, etc is to compare pure poetry to bupkus.
Yes there are some extrordinry examples of courage and class by members of our military but make no mistake it doesn't not translated to the President & Chief, Congress,many in the business community and forgetself absorbed Hollywood . Iopine other decide
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Nothing you have presented suggests exceptional courage. The will to survive perhaps, but that is instinctual. If you say the "greatest generation" was more courageous because they suffered more from depression and the hardships of a war (fought thousands of miles away), then that pales bycomparison to the 'courage' of the Somalians, Bosnians, Nigerians, Syrians and Libyans whose lives have been torn apart recently. Or the Poles, Jews, Russians and other Europeans of the 40's. I could go on and on, but the common denominator is that these unfortunates had NO CHOICE in what occurred and how they dealt with it. Survival or death. Only a choice for the hopeless or already defeated.
The resolve to chose the difficult, right course when it is just as easy to do otherwise. THAT is courage. A President, like Obama, who sticks to what a current majority of Americans believe is the hard but correct road, despite the withering attacks, for myriad reasons, from the political and economic self interests... THAT is courage. And despite how much you and a few other posters here are in total disagreement, I think Obama is the best current example of a courageous politician, the original question of this thread.