"DownTime" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"DownTime" wrote in message
. ..
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
In the past, you've said it was just an honor to serve in uniform, but
that's too general a statement at this point in history.
It is ALWAYS an honor to serve. The decision makers abilities and
rationale for going to war may be debatable, but anyone and everyone who
has put on a uniform to represent the USA has the right to be proud to
do so.

I'm not debating what you said. My point is that at this moment, it's a
pretty sure thing that someone who joins could end up in Iraq. The only
reason for our presence there that has even a hint of nobility is wanting
to introduce democracy, and Iraq's leaders have sympathetically said
"Nice idea, but don't count on it for a very long time. We are not you."
The history of the Shia vs Sunni mess also discounts the idea that
democracy is the solution to the problems in the region. (Think Northern
Ireland, where democracy solved nothing).

So, to simplify, a soldier offers to die because {fill in the blank,
please}. I don't believe honor is the reason.


I understand your point, I disagree with it being debated in the context
of this thread. If military policy was up to me, I'd bring home ALL our
troops, from every corner of the globe, and use the resources to secure
our borders and clean out the mess we have here, at home, my home, my
country. Use our troops to protect US. I'd stop trying to be the global
big brother.

The religious battles and outright hatred being fought and perpetrated by
various groups across the globe have been going on well before the USA was
even a thought. No amount of money or effort will ever change that.


Now we're getting somewhere. Your last paragraph beginning with "The
religious" - you're aware of that. Everyone should be aware of that. I
wonder why so many discount this sort of knowledge as unimportant, and go
headlong into the same kinds of messes over and over and over.....

Honor? Faith? Because their dads did the same?



Have you served?

Interesting question. Why do you ask?
Just curious. I was sensing/guessing the answer.

I volunteered for Air Force in (guessing) 1970. They had issues with my
outrageously bad vision. I inquired about working on jets, but that idea
didn't fly, either. My father thought this was absurd, but that was the
story we got. A year of college went by, and by that point, the cat was out
of the bag, so to speak, with regard to Vietnam. Even my dad, a former Navy
pilot who was gung ho about the war five years earlier, said "This is a
serious mess we got ourselves into".