> The source of meaningless babbling here seems to be your own
> keyboard. Your "Lord of the Flies" defense -- i.e., that
> "there is a sadistic asshole in virtually everyone of us" --
Where did you get the idea that what I posted was a "defense" of any kind? I simply stated that there is enough debased, sadistic people in the world, that the elimination of the military would merely eliminate only one venue for the actualization of this vast debased sadistic potential. One can as well argue that keeping these debased sadists in the barracks poses less threat to civility than keeping them at large.
As to the US military -it indeed is the force of the evil empire and all that, no question about that. I also understand that the US military often suffers from the "cowboy/badass attitude" - as for example described by Parenti in his The Nation piece on Iraq and Afghanistan, much more so than the EU or Canadian troops - but let's not lose the sense of proportion here. If you think the US military is particularly debased and sadistic, I suggest you try other countries - Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, China, Rwanda, Liberia, Zimbabwe and so on. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3756866.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4674366.stm By these standards, the US military is a paragon of professionalism. So focusing on the US military without denouncing military forces of other countries is pointless and disingenuous. It is, as you say, a debased institution almost by definition, but also one that is unlikely to disappear any time soon, or for that matter, when the Revolution finally comes. So let's keep things in a perspective.
To reiterate - I am not trying to "defend" the military - either US or in general. I am merely trying to be less moralistic and more realistic.
Wojtek