Dark days for Stargate SG-1 fans?

[nic]

Originally posted by skoon
soory, one more little pet peeve. It disturbs me how easily Teal'c can fire on & kill his own kind when it's his own kind he's trying ot convince to be free from the G.

Ahhh! I never really thought of that angle!

 

[Rowan]

Teal'c...

I may be looking at this situation in 'way too simplistic a fashion, but ultimately there are two folks on a battle field: 'Those who think like you' and 'Those who don't'. 'Those who don't' will try to kill you in a second becasue if they don't you're gonna kill them.

It's a fact of being a soldier and sometimes the *only* way you are able to hump ruck and fight day after day after day.

Teal'c knows this as a soldier and also has a unique perspective on his *enemy* having been trained just like them.

War is a 'kill or be killed' situation. Anything less and *you're* the one who doesn't come home.

"No one ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the -other- poor ******* die for -his- country." General George S.Patton, Jr.

<A very hard and very soul-pained lesson I had to learn during Desert Storm>

 

[ysm]

Originally posted by Anni
I travel a lot both inside and outside of the UK, and as for inviting you to stay had I been travelling in, you are very welcome, I know all too well what its like to be a struggling student with little or no money. It's really frustrating. and then there are old ladies like myself who are able to do it apparently without batting an eyelash!! when you get older the inclinations are not as strong but you are more likely to be in a financial position to indulge yourself, when you're young the inclincations are passionate but you have no money. You'd think we'd manage to achieve some sort of balance and harmony wouldn't you?

LOL

Then there are ladies like myself, neither young nor old, but who are still struggling with money issues. I keep saying maybe someday, I'll get to travel, but the 40s are looming and I still don't have it together.

"Youth is wasted on the young." Truer words were never spoken.

 

[ysm]

Re: Teal'c...

Originally posted by Rowan
I may be looking at this situation in 'way too simplistic a fashion, but ultimately there are two folks on a battle field: 'Those who think like you' and 'Those who don't'. 'Those who don't' will try to kill you in a second becasue if they don't you're gonna kill them.

It's a fact of being a soldier and sometimes the *only* way you are able to hump ruck and fight day after day after day.

Teal'c knows this as a soldier and also has a unique perspective on his *enemy* having been trained just like them.

War is a 'kill or be killed' situation. Anything less and *you're* the one who doesn't come home.

"No one ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the -other- poor ******* die for -his- country." General George S.Patton, Jr.

<A very hard and very soul-pained lesson I had to learn during Desert Storm>

I'm sorry you had to learn that hard lesson, Rowan. But unfortunately you won't be the last student. Did you know that during America's Civil War, members of some families fought on opposite sides. Imagine having to kill your own brother!

That's something I've always wondered about Teal'q. What about any relatives of his that are Jaffa. I can't imagine going to different worlds and all the Jaffa are strangers!

Hump Ruck??? sounds nasty.:blush:

 

[Rowan]

Last Student

And that's what so disturbing, Ysm... that there will probably *always* be one last student. And once you've been there yourself and 'seen the elephant' you want to save each and everyone of them from what happened to you.

And you can't.

All you can do is pass on every hard lesson you learned and hope that's one more they don't find out about the hard way.

I friend just sent me a Mercy Lackey song I've been hunting for for awhile and it really says it best.

The Price of Command

This is the price of commanding---
That you always stand alone,
Letting no one near
To see the fear
That's behind the mask you've grown.
This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding---
That you watch you dearest die,
Sending women and men
To fight again,
And you never tell them why.
This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding,
That mistakes are signed in red---
And that you won't pay
But others may,
And your best may wind up dead.
This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding---
All the deaths that haunt your sleep.
And you hope they forgive
And so you live
With your memories buried deep.
This is the price of commanding.

This is the price of commanding---
That if you won't, others will.
So you take your post,
Mindful of each ghost---
You've a debt to them to fill.
This is the price of commanding.


And this is what Hammond and O'Neill and every Officer and NCO who's ever held command faces. I know of those who thirsted for command so bad they could taste it...wanted that 'thrill' of being in charge.

I've had it... and for every 'good' situation, it provides at least one that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth and comes back to visit you in your dreams.

I've had the 'joy' of command. I wish to God I never did.

On a cheerier note... "hump ruck": nickname for carring your military backpack, known as a rucksack. When you're out in the field, you're 'humpin' your ruck'.

And those suckers get heavier each day even though you're eating stuff, etc. Some sort of inverse law of material dimensions or something.

 

[Anni]

YSM...... You hang in there..... if you are determined it will happen for you. I was just lucky in that I have travelled since I was a small child anyway. My dad was what they called an 'ex-pat worker', i.e. he worked around the globe in various positions and we went with him. So I learned a thing or two on my travels.

It helps if you don't have dependents also. My two sons are grown up and I have no one else to think about but me. My marriage came a cropper to a combination of the fact that he was a waste of space and the exigencies of the military. I changed quite a lot after becoming a combat soldier. Serving in two wars, Falklands and the Gulf, Northern Ireland and Bosnia didn't help matters much either. Things happened which meant that I altered in character. Teal'c is not so much fighting in a war per se, but fighting a guerilla action, more against his own people than the Goa'uld even because they seem to lead their armies from well behind the rear, possibly because he feels that to make an omelette you have to break some eggs. Perhaps for him, it is indeed a case of the needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few or the one that he has to kill in his battle to free his people.

Killing another, whether it be a human or Teal'c a Jaffa, is not an easy thing, but Rowan is right that it is often a case of kill or be killed and it's difficult to stand there and exchange conversation with someone whose one and only thought is that you have to die so that he/she can live. That's why soldiers are often taught to obey without question and to react instantly to an enemy. Been there, done that, didn't like it much. It's not that you think about it at the time, but afterwards, and sometimes it's quite a long time afterwards, even months or years later.

But its what you sign on to do at the outset, so there's no point in moaning that you didn't know the gun was loaded.

 

[Rowan]

travel

Up until 1995 I have worked full time at one job - medicine. Sometimes civilian, sometimes military sometimes both [whe I was a Reservist] {30 years medicine and 21+ US Army active and reserve}. I did nothing that wasn't health care related.

In 1995, the US Veteran's Administration told me in no uncertain terms I was 'broken' and couldn't work [courtisy of Desert Storm] anymore. So I'm on a pension and Social Security.

And you know what? In 1999, I went to 'the Adult Space Academy' in Hunstville, Alabama and played 'shuttle astronaut' for a week - uniforms, simulators and all. July and August of 2000 I spent a month in Israel at my very first archaeological excavation and now plan on going ahead and working toward degrees and archaeology *and* anthropology. I had to scrimp and save a lot, but my husband was very supportive.

And this December I turn 50.

Never give up. Dreams *can* come true and most often from some of the wierdest places.

 

[julie]

Rowan, is that your real name?