Wow. Did you read my post and understand it? How about this. How about you
chill out and reread my post later when you're feeling rational about it,
ok? You'll see that many of your objections have already been covered in my
post in ways that agree with you.
At 10:19 AM 9/18/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Jennifer,
>
>What faulty logic. It amazes me that you can rationalize in your head the
>things that you do. I was in the military and loved military action.
>What's your opinion of me? I would really be interested to know. Why does
>that mean that we automatically disagree? I know for a fact that we do, but
>that has nothing to do with me being former military. I've had these views
>for my entire life. But I guess that makes me some sort of defect right?
>Someone that is not as enlightened as you. I understand that there is evil
>in this world and that evil doesn't play by the same set of rules that the
>rest of the world does. How do we deal with that? How do you deal with
>people like bin Laden, Kim Jung-Il, Hussein, Milosovic, Hitler, Mussolini,
>Stalin? They are nuts. They have no concept of civility or what it means
>to fit in and play nice with the rest of the children. Do you sing Kumbaya
>and hope that they stop because you can't see why people are like this? Go
>stick a flower in the receiving end of an AK-47 in the hands of a terrorist
>that hates America and Americans and see how fast that flower exits through
>the back of your head. Just a few things that you should realize about the
>sacrifices that military people make. Most of the soldiers that I worked
>with were college educated. Among those most had bachelors degrees. I knew
>three people who had their masters degrees. Two had law degrees, one from
>Harvard. My best friend graduated from Tufts University. Just about every
>one that I worked with knew at least one foreign language, most knew two or
>more. They were all enlisted (i.e. privates and sergeants), not officers
>(lieutenants, captains). Many live below the poverty line, housing on most
>installations (including barracks) would normally be condemned because they
>are a step above crack houses. I know because I lived in barracks that had
>rats running through the ceilings. The female in the room next to me woke
>up with one sitting on her desk. I know because I heard her scream. Ask an
>yone that has been stationed at Pearl Harbor about the quality of the
>housing there prior to 1997 when they finally got funding to build new ones
>after the Secretary of the Navy's Wife was there on a tour and actually
>cried when she saw the appalling conditions that families (including little
>children) were living in and lobbied her husband for the funding to repair
>all naval housing. Ask soldiers stationed at Schofield Barracks what it's
>like to live in buildings that have been around since WW1 (yes WW ONE).
>Mothers and fathers are deployed for months on end, even in times of
>"peace". The US armed forces are in countries right now that you have
>probably never heard of. Ask Chris Montgomery, he had to oversee the health
>and welfare of these soldiers! It is the officers responsibility to oversee
>that. You think its easy to know that the people that you are supposed to
>be looking out for are living in such conditions? It's gut wrenching. Look
>at a co worker sitting next to you and visualize them going home to a rat
>infested home with only a little money and know that they have four mouths
>to feed. But I guess according to you, there's something wrong upstairs
>with people who volunteer to do this. You want to talk about ideologies?
>What about ideologies that put your life in danger for someone else? What
>about believing in something that is greater than yourself? These people
>are out there sacrificing more than you could possibly imagine and you have
>the nerve to sit here and pass judgment on them as if they are beneath you
>because you don't understand how someone could have such different
>ideologies than you. Shame on you. Shame on you for not only passing
>judgement on those that you know nothing about, but for dishonoring those
>that have given their lives for you and others that they never even met.
>Shame on you for embodying that which you detest; prejudice and ignorance.
>Hoo-ah for all of you out there that have made the sacrifice. And thank you
>to those who appreciate it.
>
>Eyes Of Lightning!
>
>Michael Corrigan
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jennifer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 5:49 PM
>Subject: Re: Military Leaders (was RE: George W. Bush)
>
>
> > I'm extremely pacifist. I think that military action has a price way
>beyond
> > the casualties to our own people. We aren't used to paying that price but
> > people who do are still people and I really feel for them. Some part of me
> > questions why someone would become a military leader in a time of peace,
>as
> > opposed to choosing some other career. Obviously there are people who do
> > this for good reasons, like to provide protection for the people they care
> > about, for all of us. But those people are given a bad rap by people with
> > an overactive Us. vs. Them mentality or an enjoyment of military action
> > that I simply can't understand.
> >
> > My ideologies (among other things) keep me from being in a military
> > leadership position and that makes me believe that people in such a
> > position must have significantly different ideologies than I do. Which
> > means that I'm basically going to disagree with them a lot. There has been
> > a change in our military leadership recently in that we at least try to
> > avoid killing civilians and I like that. I like that a lot. I wish that
> > when military action were necessary, we could send everyone into a virtual
> > reality game and decide the winner there with no losses.
> >
> > I think that Colin Powell is an excellent example in this case, as a
> > military leader and as a person. He makes me feel like even though my
> > priorities are different, they aren't being ignored as they would have
>been
> > ignored by previous military leaders. That's probably not even the case.
> > I'm sure that he realizes that striking prematurely or unnecessarily will
> > create more problems for us down the road and to me that shows wisdom and
>a
> > genuine understanding of the situation. It makes me realize that our
> > military leaders aren't Them and that to our military leaders, I'm not
> > Them. We can all be different and still respect each other and still admit
> > that we agree on things.
> >
> > Maybe we should draft all war-gamers into military leadership positions.
>;)
> >
> > At 03:55 PM 9/17/2001 -0500, you wrote:
> > >Just curious, on what principal do you stand that causes you to want to
> > >dislike military leaders?
> > >
> > >Chris Montgomery
> > >Former military leader (no, I wasn't a general or admiral, just a
>mid-grade
> > >naval officer)
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Jennifer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > > > Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 3:00 PM
> > >
> > ><snip>
> > > > As much as I want to dislike military leaders on principal
> > ></snip>
> > >
> >
>
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