<<I . . . condemn Tee for his blood libel against American troops,
whom I exalt. >>
Well, there's your problem right there. It's as unreasonable to exalt them as to condemn the whole God-damn bunch of them.
<<As with any population, you will have failures-by-the-services'-own-standards, but they are exceptional, aberrant.>>
Plenty of Germans made the exact same argument.
<< Michael begs the question of the wisdom of having a miliatary at all . . . >>
That's total bullshit. I've regretted the necessity but never questioned the wisdom. As I've said more than once in this group, we need a military like a junk-yard needs a Rottweiler, but there's no need to exalt the Rottweiler. A vicious animal is just that, a vicious animal - - certainly nothing to hold up as a role model. It's a tragedy indeed that in this fucked-up world, we need a whole class of muscle-bound morons whose one overriding talent lies in maiming and killing their fellow human beings, but need them we do. It's just like the Rottweiler though - - the owner has to realize it's not his best buddy and he'd better keep in mind who's the boss. Because they can turn.
<< . . . holed up in his comfortable, Canadian enclave >>
comfortable because we don't fuck with other people and other people don't fuck with us. You should try it sometime. Try stopping the exploitation, the imperialism, the fascism, the racism and start treating other people like what they actually are - - human beings with their own aspirations and dreams. Or don't. Keep on fucking with them and watch your GDP being frittered away on "homeland security" and "Iraqi democracy" while your competitors in Europe, Brazil and Asia run rings around you and ultimately reduce you to the third-world status you seem to be so bent on achieving.
<<playing avenging angel to the "bad guys" of the world, but all the while eschewing any responsibility for world governance. >>
Take up the white man's burden, send forth the best ye breed? When it finally penetrates the American psyche that the people of the Third World do not appreciate your assumption of responsibility for world governance, maybe you'll be able to look after some very pressing problems you have in your own backyard. Better people than you have gone down that road and it didn't end well for them either. Much better people.
<<Michael's outrage rings hollow because it is not accompanied by any sense of reality more complex than a conflict-free nirvana, which he inveighs for but doesn't in any sense lead us to. >>
Right, and just when and where did I "inveigh for" a "conflict-free nirvana?" You do sound like a defence lawyer right now, though. I can picture you defending some thug who just beat his wife to a bloody pulp, asking the judge, "What do you expect, your Honour, that my client should live in a conflict-free nirvana?" Sometimes, domer, a healthy dose of reality is in order, even if you don't get the opportunity to toss off such neat-sounding phrases.
<<Right now, brave men and women -- ON THE HEELS OF A COLOSSAL MISTAKE -- are trying to make a situation run awry turn out as best as it can given the realities. >>
They're thugs and killers, doing what thugs and killers do, i.e., killing, maiming and destroying a lot of property. Some of them are raping and torturing to while away the time. Open your fucking eyes.
<<Properly conceived and realistically perceived, there is great honor and dignity in what they do.>>
Yeah and my Rottweiler's a candidate for sainthood.
domer, hopefully one day you will realize that force should be the very last resort in international relations, and that that realization is NOT "inveighing for" a "conflict-free nirvana," it's pretty much the basic ideal of the United Nations, which your own Presidents Roosevelt and Truman invested so much work in.
