Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Fortunate Son...Missed it by that much.



There's been some noise over the song Fortunate Son by CCR that was played at the "Concert for Valor" yesterday.
Basically from the Weekly Standard, unfortunately they got it wrong.
The song is pretty much irrelevant in this day and age because at the time it was written it was an anti-draft song. While it's easy to make the mistake that it is an"anti-war screed", taking shots at "the red white and blue." that's not how most people saw it at the time. Including a lot of servicemen in the Vietnam era.
I know because I was alive then. There's no doubt that the guitar riff was pretty tasty but beyond that the lyrics were in protest to the leftist politicians that were in power.Lyndon "the great society" Johnson(D) had no intention of winning the war.
Yet they still drafted men ,some kicking and screaming, to fight a war for no purpose.
The problem was that not everyone was equal in the eyes of liberal democrats and those with the money or influence could get deferments while waving the flag so as not to harm their future political endeavors or university tenure.
A lot of people didn't think this was fair and the song reflects that.
Funny how no one brings up the fact that it was democrats who conscripted men against their will for policies that they were ill equipped to deal with. Just like these days, the only difference is we don't draft soldiers anymore.

The song was inappropriate because, like I said it's irrelevant now, we have an all volunteer force.
It does have a bitchin' guitar riff though. So at least there's that.

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