"Is this the hill on which I want to die?"

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.


Trump has been lambasted after this latest Charlottesville incident because he said both sides of the situation were at fault for the violence and the death.

I agreed with Trump and not because I love violence or want to spew hate, but because there is a time and a place to do anything. Clearly, the man who drove into a crowd had mental issues as he was on meds for it and had beaten his mother often.

In response, a friend of mine said, "I'll post this and leave it there."

First they came for the communists,
     and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
     and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
     and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
     and there was no one left to speak out for me.
First They came... - Pastor Martin Niemoller

My response to my friend was...

...I know the poem well. More importantly, I know well the conditions under which it was writ. And yes, there is a time to fight and die — and to do it without permits.

But one can't be stupid about it. 

Is this the hill?

Sometimes ignoring the parade is more powerful than showing up and waving a sign against it.

Any soldier and commanding officer worth his salt will tell you that when in battle one must always ask: "Is this the hill on which I want to die?" 

If the answer is no, don't take the hill, and live to fight another day where the battle can be better fought. 

Ever hear of Hamburger Hill? Hill 937, Ap Bia Mountain, is famous for being a hill upon which 400 US soldiers died in the Vietnam War for no good reason whatsoever. 

"The Hamburger Hill battle had run afoul of a fundamental war-fighting equation. Master philosopher of war Karl von Clausewitz emphasized almost a century and a half earlier that because war is controlled by its political object, the value of this object must determine the sacrifices to be made for it both in magnitude and also in duration. He went on to say, Once the expenditure of effort exceeds the value of the political object, the object must be renounced. 

"And that’s exactly what happened. The expenditure of effort at Hamburger Hill exceeded the value the American people attached to the war in Vietnam. The public had turned against the war a year and a half earlier, and it was their intense reaction to the cost of that battle in American lives, inflamed by sensationalist media reporting, that forced the Nixon administration to order the end of major tactical ground operations."

Being against fascism and other evils is a noble thing I applaud.

But when there is no plan of action other than "Let's show up and holler slogans", then nothing good will ever come of it.

The man who drove the car was a sick man, but I also believe he was evil and acted purposefully and with evil intent. No little voices made him do it. He's just a mean person who will use his mental illness as an excuse. In fact, is he really is mentally ill? His mother said he was, but watching video of her, did you think she was all there either? 

In any case, Trump was not wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have said it. 

Maybe Trump should learn to ask "Is this the hill upon which I want to die?" before he blasts stuff out.