The Truth On the Ground

I doubt they take such a cavalier attitude as you suggest. Our civilian government will never require military experience for the highest positions.

I believe their mindset is such that they are doing what they have decided is the best course of action to protect the interests and people of the US. You may not agree with it, but such is the way of things.

Do you suppose Clinton was of the similar mindset when he marched our boys off to Bosnia? (mind you I hold no ill-will against Billy for running off to the UK during Vietnam.)

I wonder why their wonderfully patriotic mindset doesn't extend to encouraging their sons to join the front line.

Oh yes, of course, they have millions of working class patriots to send instead.

One of my issues with Bush and Co. is that they give me the impression that they don't think other people are real. I think soldiers are just assets to them, to be used, invested, and spent at their discretion.

You are off-base on this LE. It's a pointless discussion to have.

Lordofthepainfullyappositeobservation, i consider your remarks to be very germane, very much to the point . . .

Not off base at all, McG.

IMO, you started this thread with the intention of stirring up the good ol' American patriotism by quoting a serving officer, and how he thinks that everything is really hunky dory and that the .....how did he put it?....."armchair academics".....didn't really know what they were talking about.

I made my point, to highlight the fact that there are not ONLY armchair academics in this whole equation.

Worse than an armchair academic, is a backroom bureaucrat who has soft pink hands and does his best to keep his OWN family safe, whilst stirring up the pot which results in good young men being sent to a totally illogical war.....and being injured or killed.

Worse than HIM, is the all powerful politician (left OR right), who has soft pink hands, does his utmost to keep his OWN family safe (just as his father did with him), and actually issues the order for the tanks to roll.

Then you only vote for politicians that have war experience? How many in parlimant have children in Iraq? What is Blair's children doing these days?

This is a timeless anti-war canard that has ZERO bearing on whether a country goes to war or not.

....and don't worry, I hold Bliar (misspell intended) in the same esteem.

It's bad enough BEING a moron, but blindly following a moron is totally unforgivable.

Maybe. I have that problem to but I hate using smileys.

Don't be so hard on yourself.

Only vote for politicians that have war experience?

What a f*cking good idea!

That way, a country would ONLY go to war when it was totally unavoidable. It's politicians would be able to readily identify with the horror of war and therefore explore all other avenues, before taking that dreaded step.

Please pass your brilliant idea on to your local representative.

Hear hear

I'd rather not. I do not require war or military experience in my civilian government, only for those in the upper-echelons of the military who advise the civilian government.

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was so hot to go to war and be a manly man, that he stipulated, when appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897, that in the event of war, he would be allowed to resign and be given a commission in the army. He and Henry Cabot Lodge were all for war with Spain, and kept urging it on McKinley, who, to his credit, avoided it as best he could.

Roosevelt became a certified hero, and i employ no sarcasm in saying so. During his term in office, seven and a half years, the United States was involved in no wars, and in fact, Roosevelt was awarded a Nobel laureate for brokering the peace agreement between the Japanese and the Russians in 1905. This, as well as the attitudes of Taylor, Grant, Arthur, McKinley and Eisenhower, strongly suggest that men who have gone in harm's way and seen the bloody face of war are far less likely to rush to war when the power is at their disposal.

The current situation suggests that perhaps military experience should be a requirement. But look at how the hatchet men working for the draft dodgers running this administration portrayed John Kerry, who was a vet.

I'd rather listen to John Murtha right now than Bush and Cheney. He's made it clear that "the upper-echelons of the military" are intimidated into toeing the current line.