Armchair Warriors

Following is a speech written by Rod Serling for an episode of the Twilight Zone television series (“No Time Like the Past”: 1963). Mr. Paul Driscoll travels back in time to the 1880s where he gets drawn into a dinner conversation with a man (Mr. Hanford) who considers himself to be something of a “virtual” patriot. He talks tough, but lets others do the fighting (and dying).

Paul Driscoll: “And I take offense at ‘armchair warriors’ like yourself … who clearly don’t know what a shrapnel, or a bullet, or a saber wound feels like … or what death smells like after three days on an empty, sun drenched battlefield … who’ve never seen the look on a man’s face when he realizes he has lost a limb and his blood is seeping out. Mr. Hanford, you have a great enthusiasm for ‘planting the American flag deep, high, and proud.’ But, you don’t have a nodding acquaintance with what it’s like for American families to bury their sons in the same soil!”

After taking our country to the brink of war with Iran, Donald “Bone Spurs” Trump declared, “All is well!” By that, one can assume he meant no one named Trump or Kushner was put in harm’s way. The Trump boys love to hunt and kill defenseless animals with telescopic rifles. But, if they ever saw a weapon pointed in their direction, they (like all “armchair warriors”) would crap their pants. The grinning MAGA minority would cheer and shout that it smelled like a rose garden, but the stench of cowardice would be recognizable to all.