At 05:54 PM 5/26/01 +0200 J. van Baardwijk wrote:
>>Indeed, a great many Americans *did* volunteer - and a great many of them
>>died liberating the Netherlands. Perhaps you've read the book "A Bridge
>>Too Far"? An excellent read about the liberation of the Netherlands.
>
>I haven't read the book, but I did see the movie. Does that count? :)
As is usual, the book is much better.
>>For those people, the situation is crystal clear - they willingly gave
>>their lives.
>
>Crap. They went to free Europe from the Nazi's, not to get killed. None of
>them went there with the intent of dying.
Did you even bother reading what I wrote? By your logic, practically the
only soldiers that willingly gave their lives were the ones that committed
suicide in the barracks!
What I am talking about, Jeroen, were people who going into battle could
look to their right, then look to their left, and know that one of those
three people would not make it home alive. Sometimes, two out of three.
Occasionally, soldiers were told that their job was simply to avoid dying
as long as possible, so as to buy valuable time for an operation taking
place elsewhere.
Going to war includes the acceptance of extraordinary risk to one's Right
to Life. By choosing to not either volunteer (or choosing to not desert,
and not obstruct the work of the armed forces) our soldiers accepted a
tremendous likelihood that they would die. If you don't see the
difference between typical life and accepting a 33% chance of your death in
pursuit of a greater good, then we have nothing more to talk about.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"The point of living in a Republic after all, is that we do not live by
majority rule. We live by laws and a variety of institutions designed
to check each other." -Andrew Sullivan 01/29/01
