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Old 07-08-2007, 12:40   #3
The Reaper
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjames83
None of us really know what it means to be Warriors let alone SF Soldiers.
I think that you are wrong, and some of us do, all too well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjames83
My impression is that civilians are viewied with an air of disdain and contempt.
I think that you are missing the entire point. Review the sheepdog analogy. Does the sheepdog have disdain and contempt for his flock?

The point is, when the sheep begin to berate, bleat at, and spit upon the sheepdog, and tell the sheepdog how to do his job, does the sheepdog wish to continue to risk his life and liberty for the sheep?

Civilian control of the military is well-established in this country, and is one of the core concepts of a free and democratic society.

At the same time, when a very few are being asked to give up their lives and subject themselves to the control of our leadership, is it unreasonable to ask that the civilian leadership be marginally competent and supportive?

When people start to pick at every small mistake, armchair quarterback every split second life or death decison in detail, bemoan the war as lost, call us baby killers and murderers, and to ignore huge successes, why would the volunteer warrior wish to continue to subject himself to this scrutiny and abuse?

TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

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