--- "J. van Baardwijk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Apparently not -- unless he signed up for military > service in the front > lines in Iraq, and didn't bother to tell us about > it. > > Jeroen "Make love, not war" van Baardwijk
Not an entirely unfair question, although rather ironic coming from you, Jeroen. Since, after all, you have previously argued that one reason the Netherlands should not support the US is that it would make them more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, thus apparently elevating cowardice to a virtue. Certainly, you don't seem to attach any moral taint to failing to act bravely in this horrific situation. However, I can make several answers. The first, of course, is that I didn't claim I would be a member of the resistance. I said that I _hoped_ I would be. A crucial difference. I said I was confident that most Americans would be. I am - I have virtually infinite faith in the courage and decency of the American people. My own? I have some evidence that I am willing to risk my life, but it was a fairly unique circumstance, not enough for me to speak with any certainty. If I was _not_ willing to do so, however, when it came to the test, a coward is exactly what I would be. As for why I haven't joined up - I am sort of curious as to what level of risk would be necessary before I qualified as someone who was willing to risk his life for a cause. I'm confident that your response will be some no-doubt ingenious explanation. The short answer, however, is that I tried. Before receiving an offer to work at my current job, I had decided to join the military. I am color blind, like approximately 10% of the male population, and thus under American military rules not allowed to serve in line positions. When I received my offer for my current job, several friends in the military told me to not, under any circumstances, decline it to join up. Since they were veterans, I felt that they had some moral authority with which to speak. I thus decided to explore my options in the reserves, but the color-blindness disqualifies me from most positions. Between that and my workload, and since there's no chance I could have joined the "combat arms" anyways, it just didn't make sense. All is not, however, lost, as I am currently trying to pull what (few) strings I have to get an exemption for the color-blindess (odds are low, but possible) and, if I do, I will explore the possibility of doing two years _after_ my current job, although at 25 I will be getting rather old for that. So, the answer is, no, I haven't put my life on the line by anything more dramatic than living in Manhattan, and so I can't be certain how I would act in such a situation. I know what I would expect of myself - that, to be blunt, I would rather be dead than someone who wasn't willing to act in that way. But, for reasons not entirely under my control, I can't actually be certain. Yet. But then, I didn't claim that I was. I just said what I hoped I was capable of doing, and what I would expect of both myself and others in that situation. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
