Hmm, judging from your hallucinatory post, it would appear that you yourself would benefit from switching to bottled H2O.
>Just FYI, Carl, I know lots of officers, having grown
>up in the DC area. Most of them are just bureaucrats;
>99.99% of them are more mentally stable than you, in
>fact, boringly so, decent guys and gals not
>remarkably good or bad, and you could have predicted
>that career officers would be like that. In my
>experience most people who end up career military are
>working class people for whom it's a steady job with
>opportunities for advancement, same as cops.
Ah yes, the banality of evil revisited. The problem with your Norman Rockwell-ish depiction of the military is that these winsome "guys and gals" you describe may well be humble bureaucrats, but the organization they serve isn't HEW -- it's Murder Inc.
In essence, the military as a debased form of socialism. As a career it's an attractive option for brutish, not-too-bright people possessing little initiative. For a certain type of individual it offers a great life. You get job security, free healthcare and a good pension, and you get to screw around all day playing with expensive toys like tanks and jet fighters, while on ceremonial occasions you can strut about in preposterous gold-braid-bedecked outfits, impressive to children of all ages. I will not deny, however, that Iraq has taken much of the fun out of life for these goons in uniform. Most US warmaking in recent decades has involved atomizing foreigners from a safe distance using high-tech weaponry. Unfortunately our courageous warriors now find themselves in the awkward position of dealing with an enemy actually able to fight back using IEDs, etc.
>FWIW my dad's best friend -- my dad was a nice Jewish
>guy, staunch New Deal Democrat, WWII vet but never saw
>combat, gentle as the day is long -- was/is (my dad's
>no longer with us but John still is) a Navy SEAL,
>right wing Christian fundamentalist, a super macho
>commando who was actually doing missions as recently
>as the first Gulf War; he's way too old now -- Also,
>like my dad, a Ph.D in Operations Research from a
>prestigious university, paid for by the Navy, and way
>smarter than you or me. And John is an absolutely
>wonderful human being. I am sure he has done things
>that don't bear thinking about.
John sounds like an awesome guy indeed: a professional killer with a doctorate.
Carl
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